Assessment of Concrete Structures Including Corrosion and Cracks

Sammanfattning: Reinforced concrete (RC) structures constitute a major proportion of the built environment and society relies continuously on their service. Many of these structures were built in the era following the Second World War and are thus approaching the end of their intended service life. The likelihood of deterioration increases with time and so damage caused by, say, corrosion is not uncommon. Also, increased demands are often laid on the load-carrying capacity of existing bridges, aimed at increasing utilisation of the road network by allowing heavier vehicles. Simply dismantling and re-constructing all bridges at the end of their designed service life, or taking needless strengthening measures, is unsustainable. Rather, improved methods of assessing the capacity of existing infrastructure are needed. The current work has aimed to develop improved, reliable assessment methods. Its focus areas were structures with reinforcement corrosion and structures with cracks from previous loading. Both simplified and advanced methods of evaluating anchorage capacity were developed for concrete structures with corroded reinforcement. The simplified method modifies the bond stress-slip relationship and is calibrated against a large database of bond tests, with the safety margin ensured by deriving partial safety factors. The advanced method is based on finite element (FE) analysis, with tensile material properties altered for elements positioned at the splitting cracks along the reinforcement. The latter method was also investigated for RC without corrosion damage but with cracks from previous loading. Design results from advanced nonlinear FE analyses (meaning results with a proper safety margin) are obtained by applying a “safety format”. The current work investigated whether safety formats available in fib Model Code 2010 also ensured reliable design capacities for structures with somewhat complicated load application and geometry; in this case, a concrete frame subjected to vertical and horizontal loads. The results indicate that the anchorage capacity may be reasonably well estimated by using the simplified method. The proposed partial safety factors also provided sufficient safety margin. Furthermore, in the advanced anchorage assessment, the capacity could be estimated solely from weakened tensile properties located at the position of the splitting cracks and without input concerning the corrosion level. Moreover, by including cracks from previous loading in advanced modelling, improved predictions of the failure mode, ultimate capacity and ductility were demonstrated. Lastly, in the investigation of safety formats for nonlinear FE analysis, the method of estimating a coefficient of variance of resistance (ECOV), did not reach the intended safety level. However, the global resistance factor method (GRF) and partial factor method (PSF) did. This work has the potential to improve both simplified and advanced assessment methods, providing more sustainable infrastructure management in the future.