Investigations on the structural Behaviour of reinforced concrete Columns damaged by rebar corrosion

Abstract

Corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete has become a major newlinedurability problem world wide especially for structures such as bridges newlineparking decks offshore structures and other buildings exposed to aggressive newlineenvironments due to sea water or de icing salt Steel corrosion in concrete newlineleads to reduction of both the steel cross section and the mechanical newlineproperties cracking splitting and even delaminating due to the expansion of newlinecorrosion products reduction in the bond strength between steel and concrete newlinedue to the accumulation of corrosion products around the steel thus affecting newlinethe serviceability of R C structures newlineRC columns are the most essential and important structural newlineelements in buildings and bridges When the structures are exposed to newlinecorrosive environment premature failure of RC columns due to corrosion newlineleads to ultimate collapse of the complete structure In order to ensure safety newlineof such structures evaluation of structural elements is very important as it newlinewould help to assess the corrosion rates of embedded steel in concrete and to newlinerepair the damage appropriately Hence an attempt has been made in the newlinepresent investigation to conduct an experimental programme to study the newlinestructural behaviour of RC columns in corrosive environment and to quantify newlinethe reduction in ultimate load carrying capacity of columns with that of newlinereduced area of embedded steel in concrete newline newline