Fusion bonded epoxy coated rebars

The protection system of choice on highway bridges in North America for a ressive chloride conditions continues to be fusion bonded epoxy coated reinforcement (FBECR). It was first installed in a bridge deck in Philadelphia in 1973 (Manning, 1996). It was estimated by the EHWA that 100 million sqnare feet (10 million m ) of bridge deck on the US federal-aid highway system contains epoxy coated rebar up to 1889 (Virmani and Clemena, 1998). 

There are several reasons for EBECR becoming the protective system of choice in the United States and Canada for reinforcing steel exposed to chloride attack. One is the reluctance to nse waterproof membranes on bridge 

In Europe comparatively little FBECR is used, except in dowel bars for concrete pavements, where they have performed well for several years. They are also used for electrical isolation in tram and light railway system and for power transmission systems. 

Compared with North America very few plants exist in Europe for manufacturing FBECR. The extensive use of waterproof membranes had minimized the problem of potholes on bridge decks. However, massive deck and joint repairs have been necessary over the last few years on many elevated sections of UK motorways due to chloride penetration through and round the ends of membranes. The first major European project to specify FBECR was the Great Belt Tunnel. This application is described in the next section. 

Epoxy coatings are applied to reinforcing steel in a factory process. The bar is grit blasted clean, it may then be pretreated and it is then heated in an 

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At present, epoxy-coated rebar is the most common corrosion protection system and is used in 48 states. At present, there are nearly 20,000 bridge decks using fusion-bonded epoxy-coated rebar as the preferred protection system. This amounts to nearly 95% of new deck construction since the early 1980s. 

Advantages and limitations of fusion bonded epoxy coated rebars... 

Case No. 3 requires additional systematic testing, exhumation, and critical examination of existing structures involving dozens of bridge structures from different regions throughout the U.S. The structures, constructed with fusion bonded epoxy coated bar, must have been in service in high chloride environments for between 20 and 30 years. Part of the structure selection process has to include determination that chlorides have permeated to the rebar mat level at sufficient concentration levels to activate substantial corrosion if the structure were constructed from hare rebar. 

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