Structural response of corroded RC beams: a comprehensive damage approach

In this work, a comprehensive approach to model the structural behaviour of Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams subjected to reinforcement corrosion is proposed. The coupled environmental – mechanical damage model developed by some of the authors is enhanced for considering the main effects of corrosion on concrete, on composite interaction between reinforcement bars and concrete and on steel reinforcement. This approach is adopted for reproducing a set of experimental tests on RC beams with different corrosion degrees. After the simulation of the sound beams, the main parameters involved in the relationships characterizing the effects of corrosion are calibrated and tested, referring to one degraded beam. Then, in order to validate the proposed approach and to assess its ability to predict the structural response of deteriorated elements, several corroded beams are analyzed. The numerical results show a good agreement with the experimental ones: in particular, the proposed model properly predicts the structural response in terms of both failure mode and load-deflection curves, with increasing corrosion level.