Analysis of Mechanical Behavior of Corroded Reinforced Concrete Structures

Journal article, 2011

This paper presents a methodology to analyze the mechanical behavior and remaining load-carrying capacity of corroded reinforced concrete (RC) structures. The methodology is used to predict the mechanical behavior for a structure with an observed amount of uniform and pitting corrosion at a given time. The effect of corrosion is modeled as a change in geometry and properties of corroded reinforcement and surrounding concrete—that is, a reduction of steel area and ductility, removal of spalled concrete, modification of concrete response due to corrosion cracks, and modification of bond-slip properties. The methodology is applied to concrete beams affected by reinforcement corrosion, using both finite element analyses and analytical methods. A comparison of the results with available experiments from the literature indicated that the changes in failure mode and failure load caused by uniform and pitting corrosion of reinforcement can be predicted reasonably well by using the proposed methodology.