1. Corrosion phenomenology and mechanical consequences

Corrosion of reinforced concrete starts and develops as soon as certain favorable conditions are met. This does not include the initiation phase, which is highly variable in duration and depends on the quality of the reinforcement coating and the aggressiveness of the environment.

During the corrosion development phase and after a certain period of time, the mechanical properties of reinforced concrete are modified. Initially, these changes occur on a small scale, characterized by dimensions of around one centimeter. The longer the phenomenon develops, the more the mechanical consequences tend to alter the structure as a whole, on a scale characterized by dimensions of the order of a meter.