A discussion of the paper Effect of design parameters on microstructure of steel-concrete interface in reinforced concrete Discussion

The steel-concrete interface is fundamental to many aspects related to the performance of reinforced concrete, particularly for corrosion behavior. A recently published paper by Chen et al. [Effect of design parameters on microstructure of steel-concrete interface in reinforced concrete, Cem. Concr. Res. 119 (2019) 1-101 quantitatively characterized the thickness of the gap observed between the steel and concrete. Considering the low number of available publications, studies documenting the microstructure at the steel-concrete interface are important. However, in our discussion, we think that aspects related to the terminology, the specimen preparation and possible experimental artefacts in the discussed paper can be improved.