Corrosion Characteristics of Reinforced Concrete Under the Coupled Effects of Chloride Ingress and Static Loading: Laboratory Tests and Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe the coupled effects of chloride ingress and static loading on the evolution of corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete. A new corrosion test was adopted to accelerate the non-uniform corrosion of the steel. Finite element analysis was used to investigate the influence of coupled chemo-mechanical processes on corrosion expansion stress of the concrete cover. As is shown by the results, the half-cell potentials of steel reinforcement in the reinforced concrete specimens decreased with increase in the number of wetting-drying cycles and the applied static loading, which cause the steel reinforcement to be more prone to corrosion attack. Owing to the coupled action of chloride ingress and static loading, non-uniform distribution of corrosion activity on the steel reinforcement increased significantly. The finite element simulations showed the existence of static loading increased the maximum stress on the concrete cover, which increases the susceptibility of concrete cover to corrosion-related expansion cracking. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.24.2.17963