Project R-14789

Coupled Corrosion-Mechanical Assessment of Cracked Critical Zones of Reinforced Concrete Members (Research)

Much of the critical infrastructure in the western world, and elsewhere, was built in the 1970s and 80s. As a result, in the coming decade a large number of bridges, tunnels, and other important structures will enter a critical age of 50 years, typically linked to significant levels of corrosion and deterioration. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to be able to accurately assess the safety and remaining lifetime of existing structures, taking account of the current state of corrosion and predicting its evolution over time. The corrosion of reinforced concrete structures occurs mainly due to the penetration of water, oxygen, carbonation and chlorides in the concrete, which leads to depassivation and corrosion of the steel reinforcement. These processes are accelerated by cracks in the structure. As the corrosion advances, the cracks open wider and as the cracks open wider, the corrosion advances even faster, thus quickly reducing the safety of the structure. This project aims at investigating the coupling between the corrosion and the mechanical behavior in critical regions of reinforced concrete structures. The problem will be tackled by testing at small scale, designing and implementing an innovative setup for coupled testing at large scale, and extending the capacities of a crack- and kinematics-based mechanical modeling framework to incorporate interaction with enhanced corrosion models and predict the mechanical degradation with inclusion of corrosion effects.

01 January 2024 - 31 December 2027