Modeling cyclic behavior of squat reinforced concrete walls exposed to acid deposition

Abstract

Acid deposition has a noticeable influence on reinforced concrete (RC) buildings which could cause catastrophic injuries and safety risks accompanied by loss of life and property. This study aims to establish a modeling method for predicting the nonlinear response of corroded squat reinforced concrete (RC) walls caused by the acidic attack. Compression tests on corroded confined concrete are performed to provide the stress-strain relationship of concrete after erosion. Quasi-static experiments on corroded RC walls with different corrosion levels and design parameters were conducted, and the test results were used for calibration and verification. Then, a numerical simulation method of corroded squat RC walls is proposed based on the fiber-based element SFI-MVELM in the OpenSees platform, considering the influence of corrosion on three main aspects, i.e., material mechanical properties, shear mechanism, and bond-slip effect. The comparison results show that the proposed model captures the cyclic responses of the tested wall specimens with reasonable accuracy in terms of hysteresis curves, indicating that the modeling method is suitable for investigating the seismic behavior of corroded RC walls and can meet the needs of a lifecycle seismic performance evaluation of RC structure in an acidic environment.