Corrosion of reinforcement in concrete

Corrosion of reinforcement is the greatest cause of durability failure in the world today. This situation came about because designers and specifiers of works constructed in earlier decades were reliant on codes that did not fully take account of the phenomenon. The drafting of codes involves reliance on experience and there was insufficient evidence and understanding of the corrosion phenomenon in concrete to better inform the drafters. The emerging generation of standards will improve matters by forcing us to explicitly consider the mechanism of failure. It is important therefore to appreciate some fundamental aspects of the corrosion phenomenon.