3.2. The Mechanical Strengths of MPC-RPC
As reported in References [
3,
9], the curing ages of 3 h, 1 day, 3 days and 28 days are usually used for reflecting the mechanical strength of magnesium phosphate cement-based material. In order to facilitate comparison with previous studies, the curing ages of 3 h, 1 day, 3 days and 28 days are selected. The flexural and compressive strengths of MPC-RPC are depicted in
Figure 7. It can be observed in
Figure 7, the flexural and compressive strengths increase with the increasing steel fibers ratio and the curing age. The flexural strength of MPC-RPC cured for 3 h increases by 156.9%, when the steel fibers ratio varies from 0% to 3%. While, when the curing ages are 1 day, 3 days and 28 days, the increasing rates are 119.4%, 61.4% and 50%, respectively. Moreover, the increasing rates of compressive strength by steel fibers of specimens cured for 3 h, 1 day, 3 days and 28 days are 0~30.4%, 0~32.7%, 0~64.8% and 0~50%, respectively. When the curing age ranges from 3 h to 1 d, the increasing rate of flexural strength of MPC-RPC is 3.8~21.5%. Meanwhile, when the curing age ranges from 3 h to 28 days, the increasing rate of flexural strength of MPC-RPC is 28.2~119.6%. Additionally, the maximum increasing rate of compressive strength by curing age is 102.1%. Meanwhile, the maximum increasing rate of compressive strength by the steel fibers ratio is 49.4%. This is attributed to the reason that the magnesium oxide will react with potassium dihydrogen phosphate to form hydrated magnesium phosphate rapidly [
40,
41,
42], besides the mechanical strengths of MPC-RPC at low curing age is enough high. The addition of steel fibers can bridge cracks inner MPC-RPC, thus improving the mechanical strengths, especially the flexural strength. The values of error bars are lower than 0.073, indicating the accuracy of experimental results. Compared with the RPC prepared with sulphoaluminate cement, the flexural strength of MPC-RPC is reduced by 13.2~25.4%, and the compressive strength is increased by 10.6~31.3% [
43]. The flexural strength and compressive strength of MPC-RPC before 28 days are 25% higher than those of RPC prepared with ordinary Portland cement. Meanwhile, when the curing age is 28 days, the mechanical strengths of MPC-RPC are lower than that of RPC with Ordinary Portland cement [
44].
3.5. Corrosion Resistance of Steel Bars Inner MPC-RPC
The mass loss rate (Δ
m/
m) of reinforced MPC-RPC during NaCl F-T cycles(
N) is illustrated in
Figure 10. The fitting results of the relationship between (Δ
m/m) and the
N are shown in
Table 5.
Figure 10 shows that as the number of NaCl F-T cycles (
N) increases, so does the mass loss rate of reinforced MPC-RPC. This is explained by the fact that frozen-heave stress can make the surface on the cement concrete spall [
47]. Moreover, the chloridion can corrode the steel bars and steel fibers inner MPC-RPC thus causing cracking of MPC-RPC and reducing the mass of MPC-RPC. When the steel fibers’ ratio varies from 0% to 2.0%, the mass loss increases up as the dosage of steel fibers is increased, due to the fact that the steel fibers enhance the loss of electronic capability. When the dosage of steel fibers is 2.0%~3.0%, the mass loss rate of reinforced MPC-RPC decreases with the increasing steel fibers’ ratio. This is explained by the ability of the steel fibers to bridge internal cracks in MPC-RPC, which decreases the mass loss of MPC-RPC [
48].
The variation rate of ultrasonic velocity of MPC-RPC is illustrated in
Figure 11. The ultrasonic velocity decreases with the increasing number of NaCl F-T cycles, as shown in
Figure 11. This is explained by the fact that the NaCl F-T cycles can accelerate the MPC-RPC’s crack propagation which blocks the propagation process of ultrasound [
49,
50]. Additionally, the chloride ions will penetrate into MPC-RPC through the cracks developed by NaCl F-T cycles thereby corroding the passive film of reinforcement and steel fibers thus accelerating the following corrosion [
28,
29]. Consequently, the cracks increase and the ultrasonic velocity decreases. Moreover, as observed in
Figure 11, in some conditions, the addition of steel fibers lead to decreasing the ultrasonic velocity, due to the increasing dosages of steel fibers can improve the electrical conduction of MPC-RPC, which accelerates the electrochemical corrosion of the inner reinforcement. On the other hand, the increasing dosage of steel fibers can limit the cracking of cracks, which increases the ultrasonic velocity [
51]. The values of error bars are lower than 0.1, which exhibits accurate experimental results.
Figure 12 presents the electrical resistivity of MPC-RPC. It is apparent from
Figure 12 that the electrical resistivity increases with the increasing NaCl F-T cycles(N). The relationship between electrical resistivity and the number of F-T cycles is deduced as quadratic function. The fitting results are exhibited in
Table 6. As shown in
Table 6, the fitting degrees are higher than 0.99, thus proving the accuracy of the fitting equations. This is mainly because the NaCl F-T cycles can increase the F-T cracks which blocks the migration of conductive particles and increases the electrical resistivity of MPC-RPC [
49,
50]. Moreover, the NaCl F-T cycles can accelerate the corrosion of reinforcement and steel fibers. The rust inner MPC-RPC can prevent the electron transferring though reinforcement and steel fibers. Moreover, the rust can block the channel of pore solution, thus increasing the electrical resistivity [
52,
53]. Furthermore, the electrical resistivity of MPC-RPC is decreased by the increase in the dosage of steel fibers due to the improved steel fibers’ network.
The mass loss rate of reinforced MPC-RPC during NaCl D-W alternations (
n) is exhibited in
Figure 13. As can be seen in
Figure 13, the mass loss rates of all curves increase as a quadratic function with the NaCl D-W alternations. The fitting results are shown in
Table 7. It can be found in
Table 7, the fitting degrees are higher than 0.99, therefore, the fitting equation is reasonable. This is due to the fact that the NaCl D-W alternations can increase crystallization stress’ effect thus increasing the spalling of MPC-RPC and decreasing the following mass. Moreover, the NaCl D-W alternations lead to accelerating the corrosion of reinforcement and steel fibers, the rust by corrosion can induce the spalling on the surface of MPC-RPC, which decreases the mass [
54,
55].
Figure 14 demonstrates the ultrasonic velocity of MPC-RPC during NaCl D-W alternations. It can be noticed from
Figure 14 that the ultrasonic velocity of MPC-RPC decreases with the increasing NaCl D-W alternations due to the increased inner cracks by NaCl D-W alternations. Moreover, the increased steel fibers’ dosages can form dense networks inner MPC-RPC, which increases the ultrasonic velocity of MPC-RPC.
Figure 15 shows the electrical resistivity of MPC-RPC during NaCl D-W alternations. As depicted in
Figure 15, the electrical resistivity of MPC-RPC increases with the increasing number of NaCl D-W alternations. This is due to the fact that the NaCl D-W cracks induced by NaCl D-W alternations can reduce the transmission speed of conductive particles, therefore, the electrical resistivity of MPC-RPC is increased by the NaCl D-W alternations [
55].
Table 8 illustrates the fitting results. As illustrated in
Figure 15 and
Table 8, the relationship between electrical resistivity of MPC-RPC and the number of NaCl D-W alternations fits well with quadratic function. Moreover, the corrosion degree of steel fibers and steel bars are increased by NaCl D-W alternations, resulting in a higher electrical resistivity of MPC-RPC [
56,
57]. Furthermore, the electrical resistivity of MPC-RPC is decreased with the increase in the increasing amount of steel fibers, due to the improved conductive networks by steel fibers.
Figure 16 depicts the AC impedance spectrum curves of reinforced MPC-RPC. The AC impedance spectrum curves consist of real part and imaginary part. The real part represents the electrical resistance. Meanwhile, the imaginary part refers to the electrical reactance. The imaginary parts of all curves firstly decrease and then increase with the increasing real part. As illustrated in
Figure 16, the values of extreme point move from right to the left when the amount of steel fibers is increased, indicating enhanced electrical conduction. Moreover, it can be found in
Figure 16, the NaCl F-T cycles and NaCl D-W alternations lead to increasing the real parts’ values of the extreme point. This is due to the increased electrical resistance by NaCl F-T cycles and NaCl D-W alternations, reflecting that the corrosion degree of reinforcement has been accelerated [
55]. Furthermore, the increasing rate the values of extreme point by NaCl D-W alternations are higher than that by NaCl F-T cycles.
Figure 17 shows the equivalent circuit diagram of reinforced MPC-RPC. The electric circuit of reinforced MPC-RPC is consisted of three parallel electrical components (the parallel electrical resistance and reactance of passive film, steel fibers and pore solution), as detailed in
Figure 17. The corresponding Chi-squared is lower than 0.01, indicating the rationality of equivalent circuit diagram.
Figure 18 shows the electrical resistivity calculated by the equivalent circuit diagram of
Figure 17. As can be seen in observed from
Figure 18, the electrical resistivity of passive film increases when the addition of steel fibers increases from 0% to 0.5%, the electrical resistance increases with amount of steel fibers used, due to the increased electrochemical corrosion of inner steel bars [
55]. However, when the dosages of steel fibers increase from 0.5% to 3.0%, the electrical resistivity of passive film decreases with the increasing steel fibers. This is attributed to the improving effect of steel fibers on the corrosion resistance of steel bars. Finally, it can be found that the electrical resistivity of the passive film of the specimens after 30 NaCl D-W alternations is higher than that after 300 NaCl F-T cycles. Therefore, the steel bars inner MPC-RPC corrode more seriously after 30 NaCl D-W alternations than that after 300 NaCl F-T cycles.