Image analysis on the flexural behaviors of RC beams with artificial damage and the effects of repair

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In cold and snowy regions, frost damage happened in an RC bridge deck slab leads to horizontally layered cracks, which results in the disintegration of cover concrete. Since this deterioration mode occurs inside an RC slab, it is usually difficult to detect them. It is possible that the slab performances have already decreased when the deteriorations appear on the exterior surface. As a preliminary step towards the establishment of a method for evaluating the structural performance of such a damaged RC slab, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between deteriorations and structural behaviors and to study the effect of an epoxy injection repair. For simplification, RC beams are prepared with artificial cracks that simulate deteriorations and these were made by the use of expansive agent. These beams are tested in flexure. Since the damage is volumetric, image analysis is useful to capture the two-dimensional deformations. It is shown that with different deterioration depths that is a part of the compression side of the beam or full of the height, there are differences about the deformation behaviors, the repair effects and the distributions of maximum and minimum principal strain.