Environmentally assisted stress-corrosion cracking of high-strength carbon steel patented wire

Abstract

High-strength carbon steel patented wire is widely used in the skeleton of buildings and bridges, cemented in concrete in order to counterbalance severe compressive stresses being developed in the reinforced structures. For a number of reasons which are beyond the scope of this study, a reinforced wall of such a structure was severely cracked and the skeletal high-strength carbon steel wires were exposed to environmental corrosive conditions. Soon thereafter, a number of wires failed while being subjected to a tension stress lower than their strength