Electrochemical noise measurements were performed on carbon steel and two stainless alloys exposed to a synthetic pore solution at various pH levels. The test results have confirmed the results of other initial research, that stainless steel rebars are significantly more corrosion resistant compared with the carbon steel variety. The performance of the
S3 1600 (UNS) alloy was, as expected, the best of the three alloys evaluated and this stainless steel withstood 160/0 Cl at a pH below 10 in these short term tests. Obviously, corrosive attack could be anticipated at longer test duration and these tests are essentially limited to a relative ranking of the alloys. The 12% Cr alloy also performed distinctly better than the carbon steel but was inferior to the more highly alloyed and costly S3 1600 grade. The electrochemical noise measurements appear to hold much promise for providing ‘early warning’ of imminent rebar corrosion damage and are recommended for field use evaluation. A more complete picture of dynamic rebar corrosion processes is obtained from real-time data, compared with isolated “once-off’ measurements.