Corrosion-Fatigue Life Prediction Modeling for RC Structures under Coupled Carbonation and Repeated Loading

Chenxing Cui,Li Song,Zhiwu Yu,Jinliang Liu

doi:10.3390/math9243296

Abstract

The coupled action of concrete carbonation and repeated loading strongly influences the safety of reinforced concrete (RC) structures and substantially reduces service life. A novel corrosion-fatigue life prediction model for RC structures under coupled carbonation and repeated loading was developed. The effect of fatigue damage on concrete carbonation and carbonation-induced corrosion rate was considered, and the acceleration of fatigue damage accumulation due to reinforcement corrosion was considered in this approach. The proposed corrosion-fatigue life prediction model was illustrated by a 6 m-span RC slab in a simply supported slab bridge for the highway, and the effects of traffic frequency, overloading, carbonation environment grade, and environmental temperature and relative humidity on corrosion-fatigue life were discussed. The results indicate that the proposed model can predict the corrosion-fatigue life of RC structures simply and conveniently. Traffic frequency, overloading, carbonation environment grade, and environmental temperature and relative humidity can decrease the corrosion-fatigue life of the RC slab by up to 66.86%, 58.90%, 77.45%, and 44.95%, respectively. The research is expected to provide a framework for the corrosion-fatigue life prediction of RC structures under coupled carbonation and repeated loading.

Highlights

Concrete is the most widely utilized building construction material for the development of infrastructures due to its cost, technical properties, and durability characteristics [1,2], and reinforced concrete (RC) structures are the most common structural form in civil engineering
After a period of service, rebar corrosion caused by concrete carbonation or chloride ion ingress commonly occurs in RC structures or members [6,7,8]
The current study proposed a novel corrosion-fatigue life prediction model for RC

Summary

Introduction

Concrete is the most widely utilized building construction material for the development of infrastructures due to its cost, technical properties, and durability characteristics [1,2], and reinforced concrete (RC) structures are the most common structural form in civil engineering. Fatigue failure, one of the main failure modes of RC structures, will occur with the continuous accumulation of fatigue damage [4,5]. These RC structures bear the long-term action of the environment, such as carbonation environment and chloride environment. Reinforcement corrosion will cause the bearing capacity degradation of RC structures. Both repeated loading and environmental action will cause material deterioration in RC structures. Fatigue damage and reinforcement corrosion are the dominant reasons for the performance degradation of RC structures [9,10]. The reason is that the failure of RC structures caused by the combined action of corrosion and fatigue is not a simple superposition of these two failure factors, but a coupled process of their mutual influence [11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion