The effect of Corroded Longitudinal Steel Bars on Flexural Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beams

Abstract

This study aims to examine the relationship between the corrosion rate of longitudinal tensile steel bars and the maximum flexural strength of reinforced concrete RC beams. The study's methodology is designed to show the structural behavior of corroded and non-corroded RC beams, such as ultimate load, deflection, stiffness, crack patterns, and failure mode. Three rectangular beams were cast with dimensions (150× 200 ×1200) mm, and all specimens have the same amount of longitudinal and transverse reinforcement and the same concrete strength. The major parameter is the theoretical mass loss level due to corrosion (0, 10, 15) %. Electrochemical technique was used to accelerate the corrosion in the longitudinal tensile bars. All RC beams were tested under four-point monotonic loading. The test results confirm that the cracking load in corroded beams decreased by 25% comparative to the non- corroded beam. The increase of the percent of corrosion experimental mass loss by 8.25 and 14.15 % decreased the ultimate load by about 14 % and 27%, respectively. This reduction coincided with the decrease in deflection values in mid-span for the ultimate load, which decreased by 53.9% and 46.3%. However, the flexural stiffness was reduced by 13.4 and 15.6% for corroded beams with mass loss (8.25 and 14.15), respectively, compared to the control beam (non-corroded RC beam).