Damage parameters of rebars in marine environment and fatigue life

Author(s): Charis Apostolopoulos, Konstantinos Koulouris, Maria Basdeki
Paper category: Proceedings
Book title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Materials Systems and Structures (SMSS2019) Durability, Monitoring and Repair of Structures
Editor(s): Ana Baričević, Marija Jelčić Rukavina, Domagoj Damjanović, Maurizio Guadagnini
ISBN: 978-2-35158-217-6
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-218-3
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2019
Pages: 263-270
Total Pages: 813
Language: English

Abstract: A major task in civil engineering is the estimation of service lifetime of all structures and especially of these of high importance. Infrastructures, like highway bridges in marine environment, during their lifetime are subjected to heavy traffic loadings and in aggressive corrosive environment, and the consequence is the gradual structural deterioration. Due to the abovementioned, the durability of RC structures is affected and a significant reduction of the remaining service life is induced. As it is widely known, corrosion constitutes a major deterioration factor for infrastructures which are located on coastal areas. This paper presents the results of the corrosion fatigue behaviour of reinforcing steel bars. Fifty two steel bars were divided into 2 groups of different exposed length (long – short) in marine environment and into 6 different exposure time of 25h, 50h, 75h, 150h, 200h and 230h simulating XS exposure (wetting-drying cycles). The steel bars were cleaned, weighed and their surface damage was examined and fatigue tests were performed. The results demonstrated that the corrosion damage (in terms of mass loss) of both specimens' groups is closely related to the exposed, each time, length to the corrosion environment (differential aeration corrosion). As a consequence, the lifetime of reinforcing steel bars with short exposed length depicts unexpectedly a dramatic reduction in comparison with those with long exposed length. Extrapolating the results of the present study on reinforcement of linear RC elements in marine environment, issues are raised concerning the assessment of high importance structures in relevant aggressive environment.

Online publication :2019
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros) : 00