This paper discusses how we could understand the structural performance of a deteriorated rein- forced concrete (RC) member only based on the visual investigation data of its surface appearance. The au- thors have proposed a simplified assessment system of RC…
This paper discusses how we could understand the structural performance of a deteriorated rein- forced concrete (RC) member only based on the visual investigation data of its surface appearance. The au- thors have proposed a simplified assessment system of RC member suffered from chloride-induced corrosion as the deterioration grading system. The deterioration grading system is a kind of condition assessment which will be judged by the appearance of RC members such as crack geometries, rust stain, delamination, spalling of cover concrete, corrosion state of reinforcement if it is directly visible, and so on. This system is simple and more or less subjective but will be a very efficient tool if it is linked to structural performance. A total of 30 reinforced concrete slabs extracted from superstructures of open-type wharves aged 30 to 44 years was ex- perimentally load tested to examine the load-carrying capacities after corrosion of reinforcement occurred. The relationship was found between the deterioration grade judged only by visual inspection and the load- carrying capacity. It was concluded that the load-carrying capacity becomes smaller than the calculated predic- tion when the symptom of deterioration appears on the surface of RC members. It was possible to estimate the load-carrying capacity based on the visually judged deterioration grade but large variations were observed. As a result, a simplified evaluation procedure is proposed for estimating structural performance of a corroded RC member based on the deterioration grade as well as the positions of significantly deteriorated part.