Effects of non-uniform steel corrosion on the structural behavior of RC beams

Chloride-induced steel corrosion is a dominant cause of deteriorated RC structures in marine environments. The distribution of corrosion is found to be highly varied over RC structures. Previous studies reported that the assumption of uniform steel corrosion is an oversimplification, which leads to an error in estimating the structural performance of corroded RC structures. Therefore, it is important to consider the effects of spatial variability associated with steel corrosion for evaluating the structural performance of corroded RC members. Moreover, as RC members are commonly reinforced with multiple rebars, the correlation of corrosion among the rebars can have a great influence on their structural behaviors. The main objective of this paper is to conduct the experimental and computational studies for investigating the effect of spatial localized corrosion of multiple rebars on the structural performance of corroded RC beams.