Flexural performance of reinforced concrete beams subjected to accelerated non-uniform corrosion

In this study, a modified accelerated corrosion method based on the traditional galvanic method was adopted to generate non-uniform corrosion of reinforcement. The flexural performance of corroded RC beams was experimentally investigated, aiming to study the influence of longitudinal reinforcements corrosion induced by two different accelerated corrosion methods on the degradation of flexural capacity of RC beams. The corrosion-induced and load-induced cracking behaviors, as well as the degradation of flexural performance of beam specimens corroded by these two different methods were studied. The test results showed that the longitudinal reinforcements subjected to the modified accelerated corrosion method demonstrates a considerably higher circumferential and longitudinal non-uniformity, while the traditional accelerated corrosion method induces a rather uniform corrosion. For the corrosion-induced crack, the non-uniform reinforcement corrosion induced by the modified accelerated corrosion method was closer to the one after exposure to the natural environment. The non-uniformity of corrosion aggravates the propagation of both corrosion-induced and load-induced cracks, leading to the change of flexural failure mode. And the uniform corrosion induced by the traditional accelerated corrosion method underestimates the degradation of shear capacity of RC beam, especially in the cases of corrosion degree no less than 15%.