MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR OF RC BEAMS DAMAGED BY CORROSION OF REINFORCEMENT. CORROSION OF REINFORCEMENT IN CONCRETE. PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON "CORROSION OF REINFORCEMENT IN CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION", BELFRY HOTEL, WISHAW, WARWICKSHIRE, MAY 21-24, 1990

The mechanical behaviour and the failure mechanism of RC beams damaged by corrosion of reinforcement are not only experimentally but also theoretically studied in order to obtain useful information for repair or maintenance. In the experiments, loading and bond tests are conducted for RC specimens damaged with an accelerated galvanostatic corrosion method. It is found that the reduction in stiffness and load carrying capacity occurred in the damaged beams. Theoretical studies are made to investigate the mechanical behaviour of these damaged beams using elastoplastic finite element analysis. From these experimental and theoretical considerations, it could be indicated that the mechanical behaviour of damaged beams is affected by inadequate transmission of stresses between concrete and reinforcement, which results from internal stresses and growth of cracks due to the formation of corrosion products.(A) For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 831449.