An analytical model for predicting the corrosion-induced cracking of concrete cover of reinforced concrete(RC) structures was developed.The effects of influence factors such as practical initial defects,corrosion rate,strength and elastic modulus of concrete on the corrosion-induced cracking of concrete cover were investigated.It was found that the size of practical initial defects was the most effective factor.Therefore,improving the compactness of concrete is an effective way to improve the durability of RC structures.It was also demonstrated that the accelerated corrosion tests may be unfavorable in the study of the relationship between cracking time and crack width.
In order to perfectly reflect the dynamic corrosion of reinforced concrete (RC) cover in practical engineering,an analytic model of non-uniform corrosion induced cracking was presented based on the elastic-plastic fracture mechanics theory.Comparisons with the published experimental data show that the predictions given by the present model are in good agreement with the results both for natural exposed experiments and short-time indoor tests (the best difference is about 2.7%).Also it obviously provides much better precision than those models under the assumption of uniform corrosion (the maximal improved precision is about 48%).Therefore,it is pointed out that the so-called uniform corrosion models to describe the cover cracking of RC should be adopted cautiously.Finally,the influences of thickness of local rusty layer around the reinforcing steel bar on the critical corrosion-induced crack indexes were investigated.It is found that the thickness of local rusty layer has great effect on the critical mass loss of reinforcing steel,threshold expansion pressure,and time to cover cracking.For local rusty layer thickness with a size of a=0.5 mm,the time to cover cracking will increase by about one times when a/b (a,semi-minor axis;b,semi-major axis) changes from 0.1 to 1 mm.
The coupling model of major influence factors such as environmental relative humidity,load-induced crack and stress state affecting the chloride diffusion process in concrete is discussed.The probability distributions of the critical chloride concentration CC,the chloride diffusion coefficient D,and the surface chloride concentration Cs were determined based on the collected natural exposure data.And the estimation of probability of corrosion initiation considering the coupling effects of influence factors is presented.It is found that the relative humidity and curing time are the most effective factors affecting the probability of corrosion initiation before and after 10 years of exposure time.At the same exposure time,the influence of load-induced crack and stress state on the probability of corrosion initiation is obvious,in which the effect of crack is the most one.
