Impact of Rapid Corrosion of Steel Bars on the Flexural Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beams with Different Mix Proportions
Khamees N. Abdulhaleem
Waleed Khalid Mohammed
Shwan H. Said
Qais F. Hasan
Keywords: Reinforced Concrete, Rapid Corrosion, Tension Bars, Flexural Capacity.
Abstract
The presented study is an experimental program to cast and test twelve small-scale reinforced concrete beams with three different mix proportions to determine the impact of rapid corrosion of bottom tension steel bars, using an electric corrosion cell, on the flexural behavior and ultimate capacity of the beams with variable corrosion degree. Using Faraday's Law and the amount of time spent to keep the samples inside the corrosion cell, the degree of corrosion (slight, moderate, and severe) is determined. The corrosion-related cracking pattern was the same for all beams and visually, did not indicate any loss in ultimate capabilities. Despite the significant degree of steel corrosion and the obvious spalling of the concrete cover, the highest corrosion-related fracture width was less than 1 mm. The ultimate flexural capacities and mid-span deflections decreased as an effect of the corrosion process in direct proportion to the degree of corrosion; the maximum loss in ultimate flexural capacity was for beam R2D which was 36%, and the maximum loss in mid-span deflection was for beam R1D which was 54%.
