Towards the corrosion modelling of cracked reinforced SHCC in accelerated chloride exposure

Abstract

Corrosion of steel bars in concrete is usually a slow electrochemical process, which may need a long time before damage becomes visible in reinforced concrete (RC). Corrosion modelling is essential for the design of structures or structural elements for a particular life span or in deciding whether a RC structure needs repair or rehabilitation work to reach or extend its design service life. This paper presents a corrosion model for cracked reinforced strain-hardening cement-based composite (R/SHCC) under chloride exposure. The model incorporates crack width, crack spacing, free chloride content and cover depth. It is shown to capture corrosion test results of cracked R/SHCC with reasonable accuracy.