Research corrosion propagation time of reinforced concrete structures considering load influence

Abstract

Prediction of propagation time of corrosion is a key element in evaluating the service life of corroded reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Corroded steel products often expand in volume and thus generate tensile stress in the concrete cover. When this tensile stress exceeds the tensile strength of the concrete, cracking occurs. The tensile stresses in concrete due to corrosion are usually perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the reinforcement. In the reinforced concrete beams, tensile stresses in concrete due to bending is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of stirrups. In the reinforced concrete slabs, the tensile stresses in concrete due to bending is also perpendicular to the axis of longitudinal reinforcement subjected to bending in the other direction. In such cases, the tensile stresses in concrete due to corrosion of reinforcement has the same direction as the tensile stress caused by bending. When the load-induced stress in the concrete has the same direction as that of the corrosion-induced stress, cracks will likely appear more quickly and vice versa. The main objective of this paper is to build a predictive model of corrosion propagation time taking into account: (1) the effect of stresses due to load; (2) the change of corrosion current density. The model was implemented on Matlab software. The results show the influence of the load, and other parameters on the corrosion propagation stage, when considering the end of this corrosion propagation stage is cracking of concrete cover.

Keywords

• cracked
• corrosion
• load
• reinforced concrete
• propagation
• stirrups