Effect of Stirrup Corrosion and Fire on Shear Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beams

This article presents an investigation on corrosion damage effects on the shear bearing capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams after a fire. Accelerated corrosion tests were conducted using four RC beams designed with corrosion crack widths ranging from 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm to simulate an aggressive corrosion-prone environment. One control beam (B1) did not undergo accelerated corrosion. The fire test was conducted separately on each beam for two hours to explore how the different widths of corrosive cracks affect heat propagation at elevated fire-induced temperatures. A residual capacity test determined the effects of corrosion on the beams’ residual shear strength after a fire. The experimental results showed that corrosion cracks accelerate the heat propagation in concrete during a fire; moreover, the post-fire residual shear strength for corroded RC beams slightly decreased with an increasing degree of corrosion on the stirrups. The authors also developed a corresponding simplified calculating method to determine residual shear strength, which showed shear design provisions that could improve some existing codes.