Corrosion-induced concrete cover cracking caused by chloride ion is an important indication of durability limit state for marine reinforced concrete (RC) structures and can ultimately determine the structural service life. In this paper, considering the random nature of factors affecting the corrosion cracking process, a probabilistic model which expands on the deterministic model of cover cracking time is developed by using Monte Carlo simulation technique. The results showed that the time to corrosion cracking can be modelled by the Weibull distribution. Finally, the probabilistic analysis for the cracking time is applied to an in-site RC bridge girder with four different durability design specifications. It is found that the mean and 90% confidence interval of the cover cracking time will increase with the improvement of durability design level, which means that the difficulty in precise prediction with deterministic model will augment accordingly.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.