Chloride removal from an existing quay wall : laboratory tests : COST 509 project NL-2/1992

A laboratory investigation was executed in 1992 by TNO Building and Construction research involving electrochemical cloride removal (desalilnation) from cores taken from the splash zone of an eight year old reinforced concrete Quay wall in the South West of the Netherlands. The concrete was made with Blast Furnace Sag Cement according to Rijkswaterstaat specifications. The concrete was characterised by various methods and was shown to have a high density, a high electral resistivity and a relatively high strength. It contained penetrated chloride up to a depth of about 20 mm. The reinforcement in the cores was catholically polarised with saturated lime or sodium carbonate as electrolyte and activated titanium mesh as counter electrode at current densities between 0.6 and 4 A/m2 of steel surface for 3 to 6 weeks.