Structural effects of steel reinforcement corrosion on statically indeterminate reinforced concrete members

Abstract

Steel corrosion in reinforced concrete structures produces loss of reinforcement area and damage in the surrounding concrete. As a consequence, increases in deflections, crack widths and stresses may take place, as well as a reduction of the bearing capacity, which depends on the structural scheme and redundancy. In this paper an experimental study of twelve statically indeterminate beams subjected to different levels of forced reinforcement corrosion is presented. Different sustained loads were applied during the corrosion phase to assess their influence on the effects of corrosion. An important increase in deflections was registered in all corroded beams, especially in those subject to higher load levels. It was also found that the rate of corrosion was affected by the load level. Internal forces redistributions due to induced damage were measured. Finally, the experimental results were compared with those predicted by a non-linear time-dependent segmental analysis model developed by the authors, obtaining in general good agreement.

Investigating correlations between crack width, corrosion level and anchorage capacity

“…This causes high costs in developed countries; as an example, the average annual cost to repair and replace conventional reinforced and prestressed concrete highway bridges specifically owing to corrosion damage was more than $6.3 billion already fifteen years ago in the US (Koch, Brongers, Thompson, Virmani & Payer, 2002); Yunovich, Yunovich, Balvanyos & Lave, 2001). Reinforcement corrosion not only reduces the cross sectional area and ductility of the steel rebar in RC structures (Almusallam, 2001); Du, Clark & Chan, 2005;Fernandez, Bairán & Marí, 2015;Fernandez, Bairán, & Marí, 2016) but it also induces cracking, delamination and spalling of the surrounding concrete caused by the expansion of the corrosion products (Al-Sulaimani, Kaleemullah, Basunbul & Rasheeduzzafar, 1990;Dang & François, 2013;Saether, 2010;Val, Stewart & Melchers, 1998). The expansion of corrosion products also affects steel-concrete bond properties (Lundgren, 2007).…”

A Model for the Analysis of Ultimate Capacity of RC and PC Corroded Beams

“…e e ect of corrosion is generally evaluated on statically determinate structure. In Fernandez et al's study [31], an experimental campaign on statically indeterminate structures in presence of corrosion of longitudinal reinforcement is reported. A valuable result is shown revealing a redistribution of actions in presence of corrosion and permanent loads.…”

Mechanical model to evaluate steel reinforcement corrosion effects on σ – ε and fatigue curves. Experimental calibration and validation

“…An extensive database of corroded reinforcing steel bars submitted to monotonic and cycle loading [21] were used for calibration purposes. That work focused on direct monotonic and cyclic tests of corroded reinforcement bars extracted from statically undetermined beams exposed to accelerated corrosion with different degrees of corrosion [25], see Figure 9.…”

“…In the aforementioned study a 4% sodium chloride (NaCl) solution in the water used for concrete casting was chosen in order to eliminate the passive layer by means of chloride attack. Further details of the corrosion method and the corrosion procedure are described in Fernandez et al [25].…”