Chloride-induced corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete is one of the major reasons for deterioration of reinforced concrete structures. In the present paper a recently developed coupled 3D chemo-hygro-thermo-mechanical model for concrete is used to study the difference between natural…
Chloride-induced corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete is one of the major reasons for deterioration of reinforced concrete structures. In the present paper a recently developed coupled 3D chemo-hygro-thermo-mechanical model for concrete is used to study the difference between natural and accelerated corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete beam-end specimen. Only active corrosion phase is simulated for natural and accelerated corrosion. The results of the analysis are compared with the available test results performed under accelerated conditions. For accelerated corrosion a good agreement between predicted and experimentally observed corrosion induced damage and pull-out resistance of corroded reinforcement bar is obtained. The comparison between natural and accelerated corrosion shows that there is a relatively large difference between distribution of current density (corrosion) over the surface of main reinforcement bar and stirrups.