1980. Report on prestressing steel: 6. The influence of stray electrical currents on the durability of prestressed concrete structures (PDF)

At the request of the FIP Administrative Council, the FIP Commission on Prestressing Steels and Systems has addressed the problem of stray electrical currents. In order to be informed about the problems that FIP members had encountered in practice with regard to these currents, a request for further information was sent to all the national secretariats of FIP in 1975. In all, 22 replies were received from the organisations and individuals listed in Appendix B, and to these I extend my thanks.

Although the replies mentioned relatively few cases that necessitated thorough investigation of the effects of stray electrical currents, it was nevertheless decided to prepare an FIP report and to publish it in the series of publications issued by this Commission. The report serves to explain how these currents may affect reinforcement in concrete structures and what measures can be taken to mitigate their effects.

Initially, this report was published in the Netherlands by Stuvo as Stuvo Report No. 47. After discussion of an English translation at the FIP Commission meeting in Rotterdam in September 1976, it was decided to record the relevant information on this phenomenon in an FIP report. This work has been carried out by Mr J. T. C. Harvey, a Commission member, assisted by Dr J. W. Boon, a member of the committee which produced the original Stuvo report.

An attempt has been made in this report to clarify the by no means simple problem presented by the effect of stray electrical currents on the corrosion of reinforcement in concrete structures, and thus to establish a basis for the assessment of situations encountered in actual practice. I would like to emphasise that there have been very few documented cases of stray current damage to prestressed concrete structures. However, the increasing application of prestressed concrete to structures involving DC welding such as shipyards and dockyards, DC rail transport and potentially DC transmission, as well as the use of DC equipment on concrete sea structures, has led to the preparation and issue of this document.