Experimental Investigation on Seismic Behaviours of Reinforced Concrete Columns under Simulated Acid Rain Environment

Hao Zheng,Jingliang Zhou,Shansuo Zheng,Yixin Zhang,Ming Ming,Yonglong Cai

doi:10.1155/2020/3826062

Hao Zheng, Jingliang Zhou + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/3826062

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to systematically investigate the influence of acid rain environments on the seismic behaviour of a reinforced concrete (RC) column. Six RC column specimens with shear span ratios of 2.84 were tested under low cyclic reversed loads after being subjected to accelerated corrosion tests in an artificial climate. The corrosion level and stirrup ratio were used as the control variables. The corrosion ratios of the longitudinal rebars ranged from 0 to 13.17%, and the corrosion ratios of the stirrups varied from 0 to 6.75%. The seismic behaviours of the column specimens were analysed with respect to visual damage, failure mode, hysteresis behaviour, load-carrying capacity, deformation capacity, stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation behaviour. The test results showed that the appearance characteristics of the six column specimens exhibited varying degrees of visual damage as a result of the simulated acid rain exposure. All six specimens were dominated by similar flexural-shear failures under low cyclic reversed loads, regardless of the distinctions in the corrosion levels or stirrup ratios. For the specimens with the same ratios of stirrup, as the corrosion level increased, the load-carrying capacity, deformation capacity, stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity were continuously decreased. For the specimens with the same levels of corrosion, the higher the stirrup ratio was, the stronger the restraint effect of the stirrups on the concrete, and the seismic behaviours of the specimens were obviously improved.

Highlights

With economic development and population growth, acid rain pollution has become one of the most intractable environmental issues in many countries and regions [1, 2]
It is well known that acid rain exposure is one of the primary durability issues for reinforced concrete (RC) structures, and acid rain exposure leads to the deterioration of the mechanical properties of concrete, such as its compressive strength and elastic modulus [6, 7], and to the corrosion of steel bars [8]
The reliability of an RC structure in an acid rain environment gradually decreases; it is of great importance to conduct in-depth and systematic research on the seismic behaviours of RC structures exposed to acid rain

Summary

Introduction

With economic development and population growth, acid rain pollution has become one of the most intractable environmental issues in many countries and regions [1, 2]. In view of the above accounts, this paper aims to experimentally study the influence of the corrosion level, which is regulated by an artificial climate accelerated corrosion technique, on the seismic behaviours of RC columns under an acid rain environment. In this test, six RC column specimens were fabricated with different corrosion levels and stirrup ratios, and the columns were subjected to low cyclic reversed loads. Six RC column specimens were fabricated with different corrosion levels and stirrup ratios, and the columns were subjected to low cyclic reversed loads. e test outcomes are conducive to the evaluation of seismic behaviours for RC structures damaged by acid rain

Experimental Programme

Figure 1

Experimental Observations

Experimental Results and Discussion