Reliability of Existing Concrete Bridges from the Aspect of the Reinforcement Corrosion

Abstract

The quality and durability of the concrete structures are affected by many degradation processes. The reliability of existing bridge structures is significantly affected by numerous factors, from which the reinforcement and structural steel corrosion, together with effect of traffic action, are the most important. Corrosion is the destructive attack on metal by chemical or electrochemical reaction with its environment. In the case of reinforced concrete (RC) structures, the most known degradation process is corrosion of reinforcement. RC members have to fulfill the conditions given in Eurocode [1, 2]. Horizontal beams are mainly subjected to bending and shear. The paper deals with reinforcement corrosion of main longitudinal reinforcements (reinforcement against bending) and its influence on the moment resistance of the existing bridge concrete structures. The two types of active stage calculation of corrosion were considered in this paper. The length of passive stage was not known, so it was calculated backwards.