The effect of fibres on corrosion of reinforced concrete

Paper in proceeding, 2020

In the present paper, long-term experiments involving natural corrosion of RC beams subjected to chloride solution cyclic exposure were carried out to investigate the effect of fibres on different aspects of the corrosion process as well as their contribution to the structural behaviour of RC elements damaged by corrosion. The long-term experiments were complemented with short-term accelerated corrosion experiments and mechanical tests to investigate the influence that low fibre contents may have on individual mechanisms that play an important role in the corrosion process of steel in concrete. These showed that fibres promote crack branching which results in a change of the internal crack pattern towards multiple thinner cracks, particularly near the reinforcement. This agrees with the long-term experiment results, which exhibited longer times to corrosion initiation for FRC beams with bending cracks and revealed a more distributed corrosion with more pits but less crosssectional loss compared to bars in plain concrete. Fibres also proved beneficial in delaying corrosion-induced cracks and preventing cover spalling, which greatly enhanced the bondbehaviour of corroded bars. Furthermore, a positive effect of the fibres was also observed on the residual flexural capacity of corroded beams, which generally increased the load-carrying capacity and rotation capacity.