The chloride corrosion threshold of steel in concrete depends not only on concrete
and steel properties but also on the potential of the steel while it is still in the passive condition.
A deterministic model to predict corrosion in reinforced concrete structures is presented,
incorporating potential dependence and corrosion macrocell effects, resulting in coupling of the
corrosion initiation and propagation stages. The model is applied to a generic partially
submerged reinforced concrete marine pile. An analysis is made of sensitivity of model output
to input parameters including the rate of dependence of threshold on potential, concrete
resistivity, oxygen diffusivity and size of the steel zone activated upon reaching the chloride
threshold. The results are contrasted with those of a comparable system where the threshold
is not potential dependent.
Keywords: modeling, chloride threshold, potential, corrosion, steel, concrete