Sensitivity analysis of time dependent reliability of RC members in general climate environment

Aging reinforced concrete (RC) members in buildings and bridges are subjected to the service loadings and aggressive environment, which may cause the degradation of structural resistance and affect the safety and serviceability of structures. Many existing RC structures in China have been in ill condition due to concrete carbonation and reinforcement corrosion. It is urgent to assess the durability, predict the remaining service life and monitor the health of these existing structures. The time-dependent reliability of deteriorated RC beams and columns in general climate environment of China is analyzed in this paper. To identify the most influencing parameters on the time dependent reliability indices of RC beams and columns in different actions, the time-variant sensitivity analyses for the time dependent reliabilities of RC members during their life cycles are performed using four reliability sensitivity measures. To investigate the changing rules of the time dependent reliability indices with the influencing parameters, the parametric analyses are further conducted for the time-variant reliability sensitivities of RC members. The analysis results can provide deep insights into the time-variation laws of dominating random variables for durability assessment and design for concrete structures.