Application of Thermal Image Data to Detect Rebar Corrosion in Concrete Structures

Rebar corrosion monitoring techniques have been used in studies involving embedded sensors that can detect changes in the corrosion currents and the polarization resistance of rebars in large structures. Defect detection methods that employ infrared cameras are useful non-destructive testing methods to detect defects in concrete structures. However, the measurement results from these methods would vary depending upon several factors that affect thermography. Because of these reasons, they have not been able to provide sufficient reliability. The goal of this study is to develop a technique that uses infrared cameras to quantitatively measure rebar corrosion rates. To examine the impact of the cover thickness, the experiment variables were set at cover thicknesses of 10, 20, and 30 mm and rebar corrosion ratios of 0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, and 10%. Each variable was tested and a total of 60 specimens were created (i.e., 54 specimens and 6 preliminary specimens). In this study, corrosion was applied using an electrochemical corrosion method that employs Faraday’s law, i.e., the law of conservation of electric charge. The test results of height, width, and area of temperature distribution curve were analyzed, the height of temperature distribution curve was increased as the heating time was grown. In addition, the area of temperature distribution was varied dependent upon the corrosion rate and cover thickness.