Surface Engineering of Construction Steel for Corrosion Protection - A Review

Corrosion of rebars is a major problem faced by structures, especially in marine environments.Reinforcing bars are subjected to pitting corrosion from chloride attacks.Furthermore, structures are also susceptible to acid rain and attack from sulphate species.To overcome such challenges, surface engineering can be an effective option.Recent studies have shown rising focus of engineers and scientist on preventing corrosion from rebars and reinforcing steels, by applying a layer of coating.Such coatings include enamel, epoxy, duplex enamel and epoxy, galvanization, electroless Ni and self-healing coatings.They effectively shield the rebars by providing either barrier or passive protection.Therefore, the present work aimed to summarize different coating variants used for corrosion prevention of rebars, and present recent trends.Further research directions to make the coatings more cost-effective were also reviewed.