Modeling of Corrosion-Induced Damage in Reinforced Concrete Considering Electro-Mechanical Coupling

This paper presents an electro-mechanical model for evaluating the corrosion-induced damage in reinforced concrete under accelerated conditions. The model consists of structural analysis of concrete and the rebar using the Rigid Body Spring Method and corrosion current analysis with the truss networks model. The electric corrosion process is coupled with concrete cracking conditions by relating current efficiency to local crack width; the predicted radius losses of rebars are used to evaluate concrete crack propagation and residual tensile performance of corroded rebars. The model is validated with the results of accelerated corrosion tests using impressed current and a sodium chloride pond on the concrete cover. Good agreement with the test data is obtained with the proposed model, in terms of corrosion degree and profile, concrete crack pattern, and tensile behavior of corroded rebars. The model offers a corroborative tool with the accelerated corrosion technique to study the mechanical behavior of corroded concrete structures.