Structural Behavior of Corroded Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened with Steel Plate: Fid-Bau Portal

Structural Behavior of Corroded Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened with Steel Plate

Peng, Jianxin / Tang, Huang / Zhang, Jianren

This paper mainly presents experimental results on the mechanical behavior of corroded reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with steel plates considering the influence of the corrosion rate, thickness of the steel plate, and concrete cover on the strain of concrete and steel plate, ultimate bearing capacity, and deflection. Eighteen RC rectangular beam specimens were tested under monotonic loading in the experimental program, in which nine corroded RC beam specimens were strengthened using different schemes. Three RC noncorroded beams were strengthened with a steel plate as strengthened control beams. Six RC beam specimens were unstrengthened control beams, including three noncorroded beams and three corroded beams. After loading tests, the effect of corrosion on the mechanical behavior of tensile steel reinforcement was researched. Variance analysis was carried out to quantifiably examine the effects of the thickness of concrete cover and steel plate on the indicators of the mechanical behavior of strengthened corroded beams and verify the correctness of test results. It is concluded from the statistical results of corrosion effects that the ultimate bearing capacity of the corroded beams is best associated with maximum pit depth at the failure position rather than average corrosion penetration of the rebar. The distribution of the pit location along the steel reinforcement approximately obeys a Gaussian distribution. The test results confirm that strengthening with steel plates improves the strength and ductility of corroded beams. The failure mode of the strengthened corroded beams is diagonal tension failure because of the corrosion of steel reinforcement and the critical diagonal cracking. The ultimate load of strengthened corroded beams increases from 5 to 18 kN as the thickness of steel plate increases 1 mm. The variance analysis and experimental results both showed that the thickness of the steel plate has a significant influence on the ultimate load and ultimate deflection of strengthened corroded beams, whereas concrete cover has less influence on the structural behaviors of strengthened corroded beams.