Effect of creep on corrosion-induced cracking

Aldellaa, I. , Havlásek, P., Jirásek, M. and Grassl, P. (2022) Effect of creep on corrosion-induced cracking. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 264, 108310. (doi: 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2022.108310)

Abstract

Corrosion-induced cracking is the most widely encountered and studied long-term deterioration process in reinforced concrete. Naturally occurring corrosion rates are so low that rust accumulates often over tens of years near the surface of the reinforcement bars before sufficient pressure in the surrounding concrete is generated to induce cracking in the concrete cover. To speed up the process in laboratory tests, corrosion setups with impressed currents have been developed in which the corrosion rate is controlled to be so high that cracking of the concrete cover occurs within a few days. Extrapolating the results of these accelerated tests to those of naturally occurring corrosion requires an understanding of the influence of long-term creep deformations of concrete on the corrosion-induced cracking process. In mathematical models in the literature, creep deformations are often ignored for accelerated but considered for natural corrosion rates in the form of an effective modulus. In this work, three numerical models of increasing complexity are proposed with the aim to investigate the effect of creep on corrosion-induced cracking. The simplest approach is based on an uncracked axis-symmetric thick-walled cylinder combined with a plastic limit on the radial pressure-induced by the accumulation of rust. The model with intermediate complexity comprises a thick-walled cylinder model divided into an inner cracked and an outer uncracked layer. The most comprehensive model consists of a thick-walled cylinder discretised by a three-dimensional lattice approach. Basic creep is predicted in all three approaches by means of the B3 model developed by Bažant and co-workers. Time dependence of strength of concrete is modelled using fib Model Code expressions. It is shown that for the comprehensive lattice model, creep has limited influence on critical corrosion penetration, which indicates that the dependence of the critical corrosion penetration on corrosion rate must have other sources.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Aldellaa is grateful for the financial support from the Ministry of Higher Education - Libya. Havlásek acknowledges the support of the Czech Science Foundation [grant GA ČR 19-20666S]. Jirásek acknowledges the support of the European Regional Development Fund (Center of Advanced Applied Sciences, project CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_19/0000778).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Grassl, Dr Peter and Havlasek, Mr Petr and Aldellaa, Ismail Mohsen Ibrahim

Creator Roles

Aldellaa, I.: Investigation, Software, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Havlásek, P.: Writing – review and editing, Writing – original draft, Software, Methodology, Conceptualization, Investigation
Grassl, P.: Writing – review and editing, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Software, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization

• Authors: Aldellaa, I., Havlásek, P., Jirásek, M., and Grassl, P.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment
• Journal Name: Engineering Fracture Mechanics
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0013-7944
• ISSN (Online): 1873-7315
• Published Online: 17 February 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Engineering Fracture Mechanics 264: 108310
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Related URLs

• arXiv