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Modeling effect of reinforcement corrosion of

structural behavior of beams

CONFERENCE PAPER · DECEMBER 2012

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Vinay Mahadik Akanshu Sharma

Universität Stuttgart Universität Stuttgart
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Y.M. Parulekar G.R. Reddy

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre VIT University
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Retrieved on: 16 September 2015
 Modelling Effect of Reinforcement Corrosion on
Structural Behaviour of Beams
V.K. Mahadik, A. Sharma, Y.M. Parulekar, G.R. Reddy, K.K. Vaze

Reactor Safety Division

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
mvinay@barc.gov.in, vinay.mahadik@gmail.com

Abstract
Corrosion of steel in concrete is one of the most crucial problems faced by the construction
industry at present. Since waste concrete adds heaps of junk to the environmental waste, the
issue of reinforcement corrosion in concrete, which leads to demolishing and reconstruction
of many structures around the world, becomes alarming. Numerous studies have been
performed to study the process of corrosion and its effects on structural properties. Some
researchers have developed repair and retrofitting techniques for avoiding demolition of
deteriorated structures. Others work on health monitoring aspect and active protection of
structures against corrosion. In the present work, an attempt is made to model various effects
of corrosion on structural capacity of beams in 3D finite element analysis. The paper
considers a case study of experiments performed under Brite/Euram project BE-4062 from
literature. The analytical results of the present study compares well with experimental
observations of the aforesaid project.

INTRODUCTION

Over a period of the last century, Reinforced Concrete (RC) construction has
evolved as the most popular methodology for residential, commercial as well as
industrial structures. Earlier it was believed that steel which is embedded in an
alkaline medium of concrete (pH=12 to 13) is practically protected from corrosion.
However, with time it was observed that environmental conditions have a significant
ability to hamper the passivity provided by concrete to the reinforcing steel. The
attack on concrete due to acidic agents mainly because of proximity to marine
environment (resulting in chloride attacks) and pollution (causing acid rains or
reaction of carbon dioxide with pore water in concrete) led to a reduction of pH of
the cover concrete, and thus exposing the reinforcement to corrosion.
Reinforcing corrosion has a direct effect on the structural behaviour of RC members.
The reduction in the area of steel due to corrosion is obvious. Further, there is
degradation in the mechanical properties of the concrete in vicinity of the corroded
steel due to formation cracks resulting from expansion of corrosion products. A
significant reduction in the bond strength due to lubricating effect of the corrosion
products has also been observed. Thus, a corrosion affected RC structure requires
appropriate measures to be taken for ensuring its serviceability and safety. This calls
for assessment of the structural capacity of the RC members comprising the
structure so that the present structural capacity is evaluated and if essential, certain
retrofitting and repair strategies are designed. The present work deals with numerical
simulation of the effects of corrosion on the structural behaviour of simply
supported beams loaded under four point bending using 3D finite element (FE)
modelling.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A number of studies experimental and analytical have been carried out by various
researchers working in the area of corrosion effects on RC structures
The reduction of steel area on account of corrosion is an obvious effect. Berto
(2008) has indicated methods to consider the same in FE modelling of RC members.
It has been pointed out that corrosion leads to a decrease in the strength as well as
ductility of steel reinforcing bars. Apostolopoulos (2008) presents experimental
studies indicating the consequences of reinforcement corrosion on the ductility of
the steel bars.
The corrosion process of reinforcing steel involves alternate formation of localized
anodes and cathodes along the length of the reinforcing bar. Thus localized pits are
observed in case of concrete corrosion. Berto (2008) stressed on the importance of
modelling of pits in a detailed FE modelling. In an experiment, knowing the
maximum pit depth is possible by extraction of the reinforcing bar. However, for
assessment of health of an actual structure which has underwent certain known
degree of corrosion, models are required for obtaining the maximum pit depths.
Gonzalez (1995) has developed relationships between the maximum pit depth and
the uniform corrosion depth based on a series of experiments conducted for
evaluation of the same. This makes it possible to estimate the maximum pit depths
for any RC member with known degree of corrosion.
The expansive corrosion products lead to development of strains at the steel concrete
interface which result in cracking of cover concrete. Andrade (1993) conducted
experiments to evaluate the deterioration of concrete cover as a function of the
reinforcement corrosion. Small reinforced beams were artificially corroded by an
impressed current and the evolution of the crack widths in cover concrete were
monitored against the total amount of current passed through the bars. Thus, a
relation between the amount of corrosion and corresponding crack widths was
experimentally established. The results indicated that a few micrometres of loss of
rebar cross-section induced visible cracks (of the order of 0.1mm width) in the cover
concrete.
Molina (1993) developed a numerical model for simulation of cover cracking with
the progress of reinforcement corrosion in which, the smeared crack approach was
used to model the behaviour of concrete finite elements while corrosion was
modelled as a combination of initial strains due to expansion of corrosion products
and change in the elastic properties of the steel elements due to softening. The
model was validated against the experiments performed by Andrade (1993).
Formation of corrosion products also affects the bond between the reinforcing steel
and the concrete. A very large number of experimental studies are available in this
area. However, very few numerical models are available for the simulation of the
same. Bhargava (2006) proposed a model for prediction of time required for cover
cracking and weight loss of reinforcing bars in corrosion affected RC structures. The
model incorporates the residual strength of the cracked concrete and also the
stiffening effects of the expansive corrosion products. Another alternate method for
numerical simulation of the bond in the FE model by introduction of an additional
damage parameter has been suggested by Berto (2008).

EXPERIMENT CONSIDERED IN PRESENT WORK

In the present work, an attempt is made to model the various affecting parameters
and simulate the effect of corrosion on the structural capacity of simply supported
beams. For the sake of experimental comparison, the investigations on load carrying
capacity of concrete structures with corroded reinforcement done under the
Brite/Euram project BE-4062 as available in literature (Rodriguez, 1997), is used.
Out of six different types of beams addressed in Rodriguez (1997), one (Type-11) is
taken up in the present work. The geometric dimensions of the beam along with the
reinforcement detailing are shown in Figure-1.

Figure-1: Details of the Beams Considered in the Present Study

A total of five beams with the configuration as shown in Figure-1 were tested to
failure. Two out of five beams were control specimens with no corrosion in the
reinforcing bars. Rest three beams were subjected to corrosion of varying degree
depending on the number of days the impressed current was passed. Since impressed
current was used for corroding the reinforcement, some amount of calcium chloride
was added to the concrete mixture while casting the beams. The concrete cube
strength of the two different types of concrete (one for control and other with CaCl2
for corroded) at the date of testing was available. All the five beams were subjected
to failure under four point bending while recording the shear forces and the mode of
failure. Details of the six beams are shown in Table-1.

Table-1: Structural Details for Beams in the Present Study

Concrete Impressed
No of Ultimate Shear
Beam Strength Current
Days (kN)
(MPa) (µA/cm2)
B1 50.0 N.A. N.A. 20.7
B2 50.0 N.A. N.A. 21.6
B3 34.0 100 101 15.9
B4 34.0 100 117 14.4
B5 34.0 100 160 13.9

NUMERICAL SIMULATION

Three dimensional finite element analysis of the beams was performed using 3D FE
code MASA (Ožbolt and IWB, 2010). Microplane model with relaxed kinematic
constraint (Ozbolt, 2001) was used as the constitute law for concrete, while a
trilinear behaviour was adopted as a constitutive law for steel reinforcement.
Concrete elements were modelled by eight node hexahedral elements. Steel
reinforcement was modelled by two node bar elements. Figure-2 shows the three
dimensional FE models of the beam, its reinforcement and the loading plates. For
the control specimen, the mechanical properties of steel and concrete as obtained
from (Rodriguez, 1997) were used. The beam was subjected to a monotonically
increasing load under four point bending up to the point of failure. The numerically
observed crack pattern (Figure-3) indicates that the failure was governed by flexure
mode, which was also as indicated in the experiment.

Figure-2: 3-D finite element model of the beam and reinforcement

 1.1.
1.1.
1.1.1.
1.1.

1.1.
1.1.
1.1.1.
1.1.

123

23

Figure-3: Cracks of width greater than 1mm at failure

The load deformation curve obtained numerically is shown in Figure-4. The value of
shear force as obtained in the experiment is plotted as a dotted line for sake of
comparison. The ultimate shear force from numerical simulation compares well with
the experimental observation. Further, the ductility as observed in the force
deformation behaviour is another indication of the observed ductile bending failure.

Figure-4: Force-displacement behaviour from numerical simulation (B1 & B2)

MODELLING OF EFFECTS OF REINFORCEMENT CORROSION

The effect of reinforcement corrosion on various mechanical properties was

progressively modelled to observe the significance of the individual properties in
governing the structural behaviour of the beam. Initially only the uniform loss in the
cross section of the beam as obtained in the experimental gravimetric analysis was
introduced in the model by suitably changing the steel cross section.
 Figure-5: Reinforcement cage with modelling of pits

Certain reduction in the ultimate loads was observed by modelling uniform

corrosion. Moreover, the beam still had sufficient ductility, whereas, it is observed
that ductility is considerably reduced on account of corrosion. The second stage
analysis was performed by modelling maximum pits formed in the tensile bars,
compression bars and the links along with the uniform reduction in the steel area.
This was done by introducing a bar element with the geometrical properties of the
pit at the pitting zones. Figure-5 shows the reinforcement cage with the pit elements
in red colour. It was observed that the ductility of the beam was considerably
reduced due to modelling of pits. In third model, the mechanical properties of the
concrete element in the cover of the beam were altered to consider the degradation
of concrete cover in addition to modelling of the uniform loss in rebar section and
the max pit depth. It is seen that the modelling of these three parameters in an
indirect sense leads to a numerical simulation, the results of which are in good
agreement with the experiment. A comparison of the load deformation curves
obtained in the progressive modelling discussed above is presented in Figure-6

Figure-6: Results of Progressive Modelling for corroded beam B3

The same pattern was observed for the beams B4 and B5. The load displacement
curves from numerical simulation with modelling of uniform mass loss in
reinforcement, maximum pit depths and degradation of concrete cover obtained for
beams B4 and B5 are given in Figure-7.
The beams considered in the present study had no splicing of reinforcements in its
span. Thus the problem of slip due to reduction of bond strength was assumed to be
less significant since sufficient development length is available for transfer of
stresses from reinforcement to concrete.

(a) (b)

Figure-7: Force-displacement behaviour for corroded beams B4 (a) and B5 (b)

CONCLUDING REMARKS

In the present work, an indirect and relatively simple approach for modelling the
effects of corrosion on the structural behaviour of RC beams has been successfully
applied. It is observed that modelling the uniform loss in the rebar section is not
enough for predicting the behaviour of corroded beams, since both ductility and
strength of the corroded beam are overestimated in the numerical simulation.
Consideration of maximum pit depths and the degradation of cover concrete are
observed to have a significant impact on the ductility of the beam. For simply
supported beams with no splicing of reinforcement, the consideration of uniform
loss of reinforcement section, maximum pit depths and degradation of the cover
concrete leads to sufficiently close simulation of the actual behaviour of the beam
with regard to strength and ductility.
It is important to note here that the effect due to bond on the mechanical behaviour
of corroded RC members is neglected in the present case since considerably large
development length is available for transfer of forces from reinforcement to the
concrete. In cases of splicing of reinforcement, anchoring of reinforcement at ends
for fixed beams, etc., where the development length is an issue, the consideration of
reduction in bond strength on account of corrosion becomes important for a realistic
numerical simulation.
REFERENCES

L. Berto, P. Simioni, A. Saetta (2008), “Numerical modelling of bond behaviour in

RC structures affected by reinforcement corrosion”, Engineering Structures, 30,
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