Title:
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Effect of reinforced corrosion on bond strength in reinforced concrete
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Premature deterioration of reinforced/prestressed concrete structures due to corrosion
is of considerable current concern. One detrimental effect of corrosion of
reinforcing/prestressing steel is the reduction of bond between steel and concrete
due to the development of corrosion products at the interface. This thesis
examines the influence of localized corrosion of reinforcing bars/ untensioned prestressing
strands on their bond strength in concrete. In addition, an analytical
study is conducted in order to investigate the complex behaviour due to cracking
of cover concrete, non-uniform corrosion, presence of softened paste layer at
the interface between steel and concrete, and stress relaxation due to creep in
relation to the bond strength.
The conditions of severe localized corrosion were simulated electrochemically.
The main variables were cover-to-bar diameter ratio, reinforcement
type, and corrosion rate. The influence of reinforcing/prestressing steel corrosion
and cracking of the concrete cover on the behaviour of bond were studied at different
stages of corrosion: non-corrosion, precracking, cracking, and postcracking
levels.
It was found that the bond strength increased with corrosion up to a
certain amount. However, with the progressive increase in corrosion, the bond
strength decreased very rapidly until the cracking of cover concrete, and then decreased
at a very slow rate in the postcracking stage. The untensioned prestressing
strands showed almost similar general behaviour but were found relatively
more deteriorated due to corrosion in the postcracking stage under the similar
corrosive conditions. The structural properties of steel such as yield strength and
ultimate tensile strength were influenced significantly due to the enormous local
reduction in cross-sectional area of the reinforcing/prestressing steel by corrosion.
The test data showed that the percentage corrosion required to cause cracking of
cover concrete varied linearly with cover-to-bar diameter ratio. Bond-slip studies
at different stages of corrosion indicated that bond stiffness increases and then
decreases with the increase of corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete. Corroded
prestressing strands exhibited a nonlinear bond-slip relationship.
Corrosion rate was found to be a significant variable. Pullout bond
specimens using deformed bars were exposed to the current densities of 4.0,2.0,
1.0,0.5,0.25,0.15,0.09, and 0.04 mA/cm'. Bond behaviour was studied at the
cracking stage and after 20% corrosion. The results indicated a significant and
non-linear effect of corrosion on bond strength. Both corrosion to cause cracking
and bond strength as a ratio of the non-corroded bond strength increased
with an increase of current density up to about 0.15-0.25 mA/CM2 , and then
decreased with a further increase in current density. This explains the different
results obtained by previous researchers at different corrosion rates.
Finite element analysis of the effect of concrete cover at the stages of
internal and surface cracking confirmed the behaviour found in the laboratory
study. The presence of an interfacial softened paste layer showed no significant
effect on the expansive pressure. The study of the relaxation of stresses due to
creep showed that the high degradation in bond strength at high rate of corrosion
was significantly contributed by the relaxation of stresses due to creep at
the cracking stage. However, in the postcracking stage, creep showed little effect
on the stresses in the concrete surrounding the reinforcing bar.
It is concluded that it is extremely difficult to extrapolate laboratory
data to field conditions. However, a simple assessment rule is proposed.
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