Static Behavior Of Reinforced Concrete Arch Ribs With Corrosion-Induced Cracking Damage

A number of arch bridges serve on the traffic networks nowadays since the first arch bridge was built in the UK from the time of Romans. Unfortunately, many of them are greatly damaged and deteriorated due to suffering from aggressive environment attack, material aging, inadequate maintenance etc. More and more existing bridges need to be repaired, rehabilitated, or replaced. Corrosion of reinforcement has been identified as one of the most predominant destruction factors of reinforced concrete(RC) structures and has been paid much attention in recent years. Meanwhile, corrosion-induced cracking damage has become a crucial problem for the assessment of the residual load-carrying capacities of corroded structure. However, the accurate identification of structural performance is still a challenging problem due to the complexity and randomness of concrete cracking, concrete damage, and reinforcement corrosion in aging bridges.This paper reviewed the development of reinforced concrete arch bridge with corrosion-induced cracking damage. Previous researches on the corrosion behaviors of RC structure has mainly concerned with the main reinforcement corrosion of RC beams, but rarely investigate the behavior of arch structure subject to corrosion-induced cracking damage. Based on the summary of existing researches, this paper presents accelerated corrosion experiments and loading capacity tests for three circular arches with different corrosion levels and a comparative arch rib.Through the test about the ultimate bearing capacity, the mechanical properties of the arch ribs were studied, the law of deflection changes at each section of arch rib and the formation and development of cracks were analyzed, the main factors affecting the bearing capacity degradation and the failure mode of the corroded reinforced concrete arch rib were described in the process of gradually loaded to failure. The propagation of cracks on the specimens were further discussed after the loading test. Then, the deflection curves of the corroded reinforced concrete arch rib and the variation law of ultimate bearing capacity were obtained.Finally, based on the current calculation theory on the eccentric compression structure, the bearing capacity calculation model of RC arch ribs subjected to corrosion-induced damage was set up. A comparison between the experiment data and the calculated values were made.The combination of the experimental method and the theoretical analysis is often used when to discuss the static behavior of structures. The work for the study of static behavior of RC arch ribs with corrosion-induced cracking damage will enrich the theory on the durability of corroded concrete structure and supply scientific basis for the repair and maintenance of reinforced concrete arch bridge.