Corrosion of reinforced steel in the environment of blast furnace slag and steelmaking slag

This article focuses on corrosion of the steel reinforcement in the concrete where the blast or demetalized steelmaking slag as one of the components for fabrication was used. The slag from iron and steel production from U.S. Steel Kosice was used in the experiment. Steel reinforcement type S 235 (STN 11 375) were made by cold drawing. Chemical composition of slag in form of powder and slag leachates was analysed using X-ray fl uorescence spectrometry. Corrosion tests were carried out by measuring the polarization curves based on potentiodynamic polarization of steel samples exposed in leachate and also by polarization resistance method directly on the steel embedded in concrete and exposed in atmospheric precipitation. The results revealed differences in the corrosion rate, depending on chemical composition of the slag, which is closely related to its metallic and sulphur content.