The Assessment of Flexural and Shear Strength of R/C Members with Chloride Attack

Abstract

Within the scope of assessment of deteriorating R/C structures, the paper proposes analytical models for the strength of corroded reinforced concrete beams: bending, shear, and bond are considered. Strut and tie models are adapted to include the corrosion effects on geometry, material properties and the load-resisting mechanism; uniform corrosion and pitting are considered. The Model Code 2010 provisions for bond and its deterioration due to low and medium corrosion levels are used for the verification of the models against experimental data of simply supported beams under 3 or 4-point flexure, showing different modes of failure. The innovative contributions are the consideration of bond deterioration effects in the models, with different shear span-to-depth ratios, and the comparison with tests from different campaigns in the literature, using either natural corrosion, environmental corrosion under load or slow artificial corrosion.