Structural performance of corrosion-damaged concrete beams

This paper describes experimental work to investigate the effect of reinforcement corrosion on the behaviour of concrete beams reinforced with plain round bars. Particular attention is paid to the bond between reinforcement and concrete. Four groups of beam specimens were tested, each designed to investigate specific aspects of structural performance including stiffness and deflection under service loads, ultimate flexural and shear strengths and deformation capacity at failure. Beams were conditioned to induce loss of cross-sectional reinforcement of up to 10% owing to corrosion, equivalent to 0·3 mm corrosion penetration, and longitudinal crack widths of 1·0 mm. Flexural stiffness of specimens detailed for a flexural mode of failure was not impaired by corrosion. Strength of beams with corroded bars equalled or exceeded that of companion non-corroded specimens in all cases, despite loss of bar section. It is concluded that an enhancement of anchorage capacity, believed to be associated principally with increased radial stresses on the bar–concrete interface in the vicinity of the end reactions, was able to offset loss of bar section.