Abstract

Alkali-activated concrete (AAC), which exhibits good mechanical strength and chemical resistance properties, has attracted emerging interest from the research perspective considering the sustainable development of construction materials. However, the corrosion mechanism at the steel-AAC interface is not yet well understood including the physical and chemical aspects, which leads to different accumulation and evaluation of corrosion products, compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete. In this paper, concrete pull-out test and electrochemical techniques were used to investigate the bond-slip behaviour and the evolution of deterioration of AAC respectively. In addition, the current guidance of corrosion evaluation used for OPC concrete based on ASTM C876 is not suitable for AAC. Five mixed ratios of blended fly ash and slag AAC were investigated under two chloride environments and one non-chloride environment, i.e., (1) 3.5% NaCl salt fog spray in the environmental chamber; (2) 3.5% NaCl saltwater immersion; (3) tap water immersion. Electrochemical techniques include half-cell potential, linear polarization resistance and Tafel extrapolation method were used to determine the corrosion rate. The electrochemical results are validated through the comparison of the gravimetric loss of steel after corrosion and electrochemical loss from calculation.