Rehabilitation of Corroded Reinforced Concrete Elements by Rebar Replacement

Abstract

In this study, the replacement of corroded reinforcement with new reinforcement as a rehabilitation method is considered to reduce the impact of corrosion on the performance of reinforced concrete structural elements. Also, the effect of using high-performance concrete with the method of reducing the water-to-cement ratio, as a method for maintenance of reinforced concrete structures, has been analyzed. So, the influence of the above rehabilitation methods for maintenance of reinforced concrete structures on the corrosion initiation time of reinforcement, crack initiation time and crack width of the concrete cover thickness, the service life of a reinforced concrete structure due to corrosion, and corrosion percentage of reinforcement have been investigated. For this purpose, all equations and connection between them for the corrosion phenomenon modeling (including corrosion initiation phase, corrosion propagation phase and cracking) is integrated, and the corrosion parameters are calculated and compared for the marine environmental conditions. The results indicated that, the end time of service life of a reinforced concrete structure due to corrosion (tf) increases 60.54% by applying the new reinforcement as a rehabilitation method. So, in concrete with a water-to-cement ratio of 0.35, the corrosion percentage of reinforcement in the new-reinforcement scenario has decreased by 15.60% compared to the no-repair scenario over 30 years.

Keywords

• rehabilitation
• reinforced concrete
• corrosion
• corroded reinforcement
• new reinforcement