Results of accelerated corrosion testing have shown that some types of alloyed steel have very good corrosion resistance in carbonated and chloride contaminated alkaline media, simulating a concrete pore solution. In order to fully research their corrosion behaviour and the possibility of their utilization as reinforcement, they should be tested in concrete specimens in laboratory and on site conditions. In this paper the results of electrochemical testing of different types of steel reinforcement embedded into concrete samples are presented. Different types of steel reinforcement were embedded into small concrete specimens for laboratory and in larger concrete columns for field testing. The corrosion behaviour of different types of steel reinforcement has been studied through half-cell potential and current density measurements. The aim of this research is to compare corrosion behaviour of different types of steel reinforcement embedded into concrete and to compare results of accelerated laboratory and real-time field testing of corrosion behaviour.

The adhesive plaques of Mytilus byssus are investigated increasingly to determine the molecular requirements for wet adhesion. Mfp-2 is the most abundant protein in the plaques, but little is known about its function. Analysis of Mfp-2 films using the surface forces apparatus detected no interaction between films or between a film and bare mica; however, addition of Ca2+ and Fe3+ induced significant reversible bridging (work of adhesion Wad ≈ 0.3 mJ/m2 to 2.2 mJ/m2) between two films at 0.35 m salinity. The strongest observed Fe3+-mediated bridging approaches the adhesion of oriented avidin-biotin complexes. Raman microscopy of plaque sections supports the co-localization of Mfp-2 and iron, which interact by forming bis- or tris-DOPA-iron complexes. Mfp-2 adhered strongly to Mfp-5, a DOPA-rich interfacial adhesive protein, but not to another interfacial protein, Mfp-3, which may in fact displace Mfp-2 from mica. In the presence of metal ions or Mfp-5, Mfp-2 adhesion was fully reversible. These results suggest that plaque cohesiveness depends on Mfp-2 complexation of metal ions, particularly Fe3+ and also by Mfp-2 interaction with Mfp-5 at the plaque-substratum interface.