Mechanical properties and structural behaviors of reinforced concrete beams subjected to various degrees of corrosion

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the mechanical properties and structural behaviors of reinforced concrete (RC) beams with various corrosion levels. For this purpose, six RC beams were subjected to accelerated corrosion tests, with three pairs corresponding to 1-month, 2-month, and 3-month corrosion degrees. After corrosion tests, the corroded reinforcing bars and concrete were tested to measure the mechanical properties of the materials, such as reinforcement strength, concrete strength, reinforcement diameter reduction, and rebar weight loss. Additionally, the three corroded RC beams with three levels of corrosion were subjected to bending tests to determine their remaining structural capacity and failure patterns. Furthermore, Atena software was used to perform a series of numerical finite element methods to verify the experiment results, which indicated that a good agreement of structural behaviors was observed between the experiment and FEM analysis. FEM analysis is successful when the error of maximum force between experiment and simulation is less than 3% and the error of displacement at maximum load between simulation and experiment is less than 1.8%. The results showed that the load–defection relationships and crack patterns of corroded RC beams were significantly influenced by corrosion level. In addition, predicting the dangerous cross-section of steel structures will support maintenance work to reduce risks for the project.