Effects on bond of reinforcement corrosion

Paper in proceeding, 2007

There is a growing need for reliable methods of assessing the load-carrying capacity and remaining service life of deteriorated structures. One of the most common causes of deterioration is corrosion of steel reinforcement. In earlier work by Lundgren [1], a model describing the effects of corrosion and bond was developed and implemented in the finite element program Diana, and verified by comparisons to test results. In the work presented here, a parameter study to quantify the effect of corrosion penetration on the bond behaviour was carried out. A typical section of a reinforced concrete slab was modelled. The following parameters were varied: concrete strength and cover, main reinforcement diameter and spacing, amount of transversal reinforcement, and corrosion penetration. The bond behaviour was significantly affected when corrosion led to cover cracking. From the results, it was noted that it was possible to obtain the bond-slip response of corroded reinforcement by shifting the bond-slip curve of uncorroded reinforcement along the slip axis. The shift along the slip axis is determined by the degree of corrosion. Thus, a level of corrosion is assumed to correspond to a certain amount of slip. Good agreement was found for all the analysed cases.