Electrochemically aged arc-sprayed zinc coating to concrete: bond strength study

Abstract

This research was conducted to preliminarily investigate the anode removal process that could affect the interface of electrochemically aged arc sprayed zinc coating to concrete using experimental and artificial neural network methodologies. Experimental results showed that the bond strength of newly sprayed zinc to concrete was influenced by the presence of the old reaction layer and dependent on the electrochemical age of the layer. Artificial neural networks were used to achieve better understanding of the complex cause-and-effect relationships inherent in the zinc/concrete system and was successful in finding meaningful, logical results from the bond strength data.

Keywords:

• Arc sprayed zinc
• Anode replacement
• Reinforced concrete
• Bridge preservation
• Neural networks

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by ODOT and USDOT Research & Innovative Technology Administration. The authors are indebted to the Technical Advisory Committee (J. Garrard and R. Bottenberg of ODOT, T. Rogers of FHWA and B. Covino of NETL). We owe our thanks to NETL for providing the electrochemically aged concrete slabs from previous laboratory studies. We appreciate the following professionals who provided assistance to this research: R. Wanke and his staff at Great Western Corporation and M. Peterson and K. Fortune at Western Transportation Institute.