Résumé
Reinforced concrete (RC) floaters to support floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) can exhibit prematurecorrosion due to high chloride content in the marine environment. To address the concerns about theirdeterioration in harsh marine environment, such as corrosion of reinforcements, eventually influenced bybiofouling on the material’s surface, this study has been designed to understand the interrelations betweennatural seawater, biofouling, and cathodic protection for RC structures. The objective of the research studyis to quantify the effectiveness of cathodic protection using sacrificial aluminium galvanic anode inconjugation with biofilm development. However, this paper presents a part of the long-term research studyinvestigating the comparative effects of galvanic anodes on passive steel in concrete, using CEM I andCEM V cement types, in seawater. Experimental tests were conducted on RC blocks installed in the tidalzone of Banyuls-sur-mer harbour and connected to a data logger for continuous monitoring of theelectrochemical state of steel. After three months of immersion, the exposed surface of RC blocks exhibitedbiofouling, while its influence on the cathodic protection should be probed in detail. Monitoring the mixedpotential under temporal variations require careful consideration of tidal influences to ensure continuedprotection of reinforced concrete. Each binder was tested with three replicate RC blocks, in which therebars exhibited similar trends in mixed potential and protection current density over time. The aluminiumanode delivered slightly higher currents, resulting in greater consumption in the rebars of CEM I reinforcedconcrete blocks compared to those in CEM V.