Standards and guidance documents for cathodic protection of steel in concrete

6 Standards and guidance documents for cathodic protection of steel in concrete 

There are two major international standards on cathodic protection of steel in concrete, RP0290 2000 from NACE international and BSEN12696 2000 from CEN which is discussed in the next section. Both were reaffirmed in 2005 although revised documents are being worked on. Both are aimed at atmospherically exposed steel in concrete. 

The NACE standard states explicitly in its title that it refers to atmospherically exposed reinforced concrete. NACE also has a standard on cathodic protection of prestressed concrete cylinder pipe RPOlOO-2000, also reaffirmed in 2005 and undergoing revision. 

The NACE standard was the first to be produced (1990) and has been revised since the original. Its scope states that it excludes prestressed concrete. There is a separate NACE report on cathodic protection of prestress NACE 01102 (2000). This gives valuable information on applying CP to prestressing but there has been no pressure to convert this to a standard. A list of NACE recommended practice documents, test methods and reports for all electrochemical techniques is given at the end of this chapter. 

NACE RP290 It is a shorter document than BSEN 12696 and is specifically concerned with control criteria which are at the front of the document in Section 2. The first criterion mentioned is 100 mV polarization development or decay to be measured between the rest , equilibrium , or natural corrosion potential and the instant off potential measured O.l-l.O seconds after switching off the system. The instant off potential is required to remove the iR drop  

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