Tensile test analysis of corroded cleaned aged steel specimens

The objective of this work is to analyse the influence of corrosion cleaning employing sandblasting, sand-paper cleaning, high-pressure-fresh-water-cleaning and corrosion cleaning by hammering on the mechanical properties of aged steel specimens. Tensile tests of cleaned corroded specimens are carried out. The specimens were cut from steel box girders, corroded in open sea water. The material properties of five groups of corroded specimens are experimentally estimated including the modulus of elasticity, yield stress, tensile strength and total uniform elongation. The trend of mechanical properties is analysed as a function of the degree of degradation and cleaning procedure, identifying that the cleaning treatment of the corroded surface significantly influences the mechanical properties and stress-strain relationships. A multi-criteria decision technique is employed to identify the most suitable cleaning technique accounting for the efficiency of the cleaning process and reducing the scatter in the mechanical properties of the cleaned corroded specimens.