A review on the effects of cracking and crack width on corrosion of reinforcement in concrete

Abstract It is widely known that corrosion is one of the main problems that reinforced concrete structures may endure during their life‐cycle. This problem is usually tackled in a prescriptive manner, by limiting the crack width allowed to occur during structures' service life. In an attempt to better understand the effect that cracking and crack width can have on the corrosion process, as well as systematize the existing work in the field, this paper presents a summary of an in‐depth literature review on the topic of reinforcement corrosion in concrete. The main focus is devoted to chloride‐induced corrosion since that is the most widely studied corrosion mechanism, even though carbonation‐induced corrosion is also relatively briefly discussed. The paper also presents an overview of the existing guidelines that have been used in the past to analyze and support decision‐making regarding corrosion in reinforced concrete structures.