Development of Conductive Mortar for Efficient Sacrificial Anode Cathodic Protection of Reinforced Concrete Structures-Part 1: Laboratory Experiments

This experimental study proposes a conductive mortar to increase the efficiency of the sacrificial anode cathodic protection (SACP) system by decreasing resistivity and maintaining it for a long time. The resistivity characteristics of the mortar that contained electrically conductive admixtures and/or chemical agents were evaluated by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method and resistivity measurements. The conductive mortar with activated carbon and sodium hydroxide had the lowest resistivity. The SACP system was then designed to evaluate the cathodic protection (CP) performance with the proposed activated-carbon-based conductive mortar. The proposed conductive mortar contributed to lower CP potential and higher current density and depolarization potential than the general mortar.

Automated summary

This experimental study proposes a conductive mortar to increase the efficiency of the sacrificial anode cathodic protection system by reducing resistivity and maintaining it for a longer time. The resistivity characteristics of the mortar were evaluated using the BET method and resistivity measurements. The results showed that the conductive mortar with activated carbon and sodium hydroxide had the lowest resistivity. Additionally, the proposed conductive mortar significantly improved the cathodic protection performance.