Reliability-based assessment of the effect of climatic conditions on the corrosion of RC structures subject to chloride ingress

• Published in: Engineering structures Vol. 32; no. 10; pp. 3279 - 3287
• Main Authors: El Hassan, Jinane, Bressolette, Philippe, Chateauneuf, Alaa, El Tawil, Khaled
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Building structure; Buildings. Public works; Chloride ingress; Climate; Computation methods. Tables. Charts; Construction (buildings and works); Corrosion; Durability. Pathology. Repairing. Maintenance; Exact sciences and technology; Reinforced concrete; Reinforced concrete structure; Reliability; Structural analysis. Stresses; Climate; Corrosion; Reliability; Chloride ingress; Reinforced concrete; Probabilistic approach; Girder beam; Structural reliability; Modeling; Crack propagation; Climatic condition; Chlorides; Concrete construction; Application
• ISSN: 0141-0296; 1873-7323
• DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2010.07.001

The corrosion of reinforced concrete due to chloride ingress depends on many uncertain factors, such as material properties, environment and loading. This paper proposes a reliability model to deal with initiation and propagation of the RC corrosion process, in order to determine the probability distributions of the time to corrosion initiation and the time to failure of RC members subjected to chloride ingress. The present work emphasizes the impact of climatic conditions, namely temperature and relative humidity, on the two phases of corrosion. The application to RC bridge girders shows the importance of various climatic conditions on the structural reliability, through comprehension analysis of the effect of climatic parameters, as well as the choice of steel bar diameters.