Assessment of corrosion damaged reinforced concrete structures

Corrosion of reinforcement is the principal cause of deterioration of concrete structures. Corrosion may affect residual strength in several ways: while section loss of reinforcement is the most obvious, corrosion induced cracking and spalling may also lead to a reductions in the concrete cross section and to loss of anchorage. The various mechanisms are described together with the development of 'residual strength functions' to represent the relationships between residual strength and damage. The main objective of the paper is the incorporation of these functions within a procedure for assessment of the residual strength of corrosion affected structures. The procedures are largely based on standard Code design procedures but with the addition of the aforementioned residual strength functions. The functions have then been validated against test data from a range of studies reported in the literature.