Establishment of Coupled Analysis of Interaction between Structural Deterioration and Reinforcement Corrosion by Salt Damage

Abstract

This study develops an analysis method for estimating the process of corrosion in concrete, including initial corrosion and the onset of corrosion-induced cracking. The method is suitable for application in rationalizing the verification of the durability of salt-damaged RC structures. Corrosion deterioration is computed by coupling the analysis of structure with the analysis of reinforcement corrosion. A method of calculating macro-cell corrosion in consideration of macro-cell corrosion current density is also proposed, focusing on cathodic elements of a reinforcing bar. The proposed analytical method is validated against dry-wet cyclic tests with salt solution to simulate macro-cell corrosion. We verify the accuracy of the method by confirming the non-uniformity of the concrete before cracking and, by coupling the analysis with structural analysis, investigating how the expansion ratio of corrosion products and diffusion coefficient of chloride ions affect the onset of corrosion, the time of initial corrosion cracking, the chloride ion density and the corrosion amount. This paper is based on an original paper (Suzuki et al. 2014) written in Japanese.