Prof. Ueli Angst

Talk title: Size effects in corrosion of steel in concrete

Predicting the corrosion performance of reinforced concrete is essential to ensure durability, safety, cost-efficiency, and sustainability of new and existing concrete structures. The traditional concepts in both carbonation and chloride exposure environments are based on transport models to predict the penetration of the carbonation front or the chlorides through the concrete cover until a certain limit state is achieved. In these conceptual service life predictions, the corrosion propagation stage is generally – in a conservative manner – not considered. This contribution explores novel concepts to forecast both corrosion initiation and propagation in carbonation and chloride exposure environments. These concepts are based on recent converging research advances in the field of corrosion and electrochemistry of steel in concrete (or porous media in general), which can essentially be regarded as questions of “size effects”.

Short CV

Ueli M. Angst is an assistant professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He obtained his degrees in civil engineering from ETH Zurich (MSc) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (PhD). Ueli Angst has more than 10 years of combined professional experience as a scientist and corrosion consultant in the field of corrosion and durability of engineering materials and structures. He is primarily concerned with corrosion and electrochemistry of metals in various porous media, such as steel in concrete or in soil. The research covers aspects related corrosion mechanisms, developing measuring methods (NDT) and sensors for monitoring purposes, and corrosion mitigation strategies. His motivation is to address real-world engineering challenges with fundamental scientific methods.