Effect of corrosion of tensile rebars and stirrups on the flexural stiffness of reinforced concrete members

Abstract

This article introduces the results of experiments on 25-year-old reinforced concrete beams under the effect of service load. Two reinforced concrete beams were stored in a chloride environment and allowed to corrode, while a non-corroded control beam was stored in the normal laboratory environment. A finite macro-element model for corroded reinforced concrete, taking account of the influence of corrosion development and the reduction of the bond between longitudinal steel reinforcement and concrete, was applied to calculate the mechanical behaviour of the beams. The comparison between the theoretical calculation and the experimental results showed that, when evaluating the mechanical behaviour of corroded reinforced concrete, besides the factors of length, width of cracks due to corrosion, and the number of cross-beam-axis cracks, it is necessary to consider transverse cracks in the cross-section of the beam due to corrosion of the transverse reinforcement.

Keywords:

• corrosion
• chloride
• bending stiffness
• reinforcement