Relation between total degradation of steel concrete bond and degree of corrosion of RC beams experimental and computational studies
This paper presents a study on the effects of localized steel-concrete bond degradation on the flexural behaviour of RC beams. A finite element analysis is undertaken to complete the experimental analysis. The first part deals with an experimental study on beams where bond was removed by using plastic tube at different locations and for various lengths. The flexural behaviour was studied at global scale (load-deflection) and local scale (moment-curvature). The second part, a numerical study using a simplified special finite element (rust element) modelling the rust layer occurring between reinforcement and concrete with corrosion was conducted in order to find the relation between the degree of corrosion and the degradation of the steel-concrete bond. The computed value of the corrosion degree corresponding to the total degradation of bond has been used in a second time to model the tests, in order to evaluate the influence of the loss of bond, the steel cross section reduction, and the combination of both. The results enable to evaluate the influence of the different corrosion effects on the flexural behaviour, according to the length and the location of the corroded zone.
steel-concrete bond rust element reinforced concrete reinforcement corrosion