Porcelain-Enamel Coated Structural Steel

The corrosion of embedded structural steel is the major cause for failure of reinforced concrete. As steel corrodes, the rust coating grows in thickness and puts the concrete in tension, cracking it around the steel and destroying any bonding of the steel to the concrete. The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center is pioneering a system for firing a specially-prepared vitreous enamel coating that contains hydraulically-reactive calcium silicates onto reinforcing steel. This coating provides durable protection from corrosion even in aggressive chemical environments. It also changes the fundamental chemistry at the concrete-to-steel interface by destroying the weak interface layer that normally forms at the steel surface. Researchers at the ERDC have developed a patent pending cement-vitreous enamel coating for steel that is used to reinforce concrete (i.e., rebar, steel fibers, and metal plating). This porcelain coating more than triples the bond strength between concrete and steel, and prevents damaging steel corrosion. The ERDC is interested in licensing the patent application (No. 11,234,184 “System and Method for Increasing the Bond Strength Between a Structural Material and Its Reinforcement”) and in cooperative research and development efforts.