TY - JOUR
T1 - Predicting corrosion in reinforced UHPC members through time-dependent multi-physics numerical simulation
AU - Fan, Jin
AU - Shirkhorshidi, Seyed Masoud
AU - Adams, Matthew
AU - Bandelt, Matthew J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology and by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) through Contract ID# 19-60155.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/7/18
Y1 - 2022/7/18
N2 - Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) has superior durability characteristics over traditional concrete. Improved durability behavior of UHPC has been attributed to the dense material property, which effectively constrains harmful material ingress and oxygen supply. However, the corrosion performance of reinforced UHPC under sustained mechanical loading, which may induce cracking, in addition to environmental conditioning is still not well characterized. This study investigates the electrochemical-mechanical coupling effects on deterioration mechanisms of reinforced UHPC beams subjected to service loading conditions and chloride attack through multi-physics simulation techniques. Finite element models were simulated considering the cracking induced by service loads and deformations caused by rust expansion on the cementitious matrix. Material transport properties such as chloride and oxygen penetration parameters were updated in each step of the time-dependent process based on cracking conditions. The simulation results show that there is substantial steel cross section and yielding load capacity loss, initial stiffness reduction, and damage area increase in reinforced concrete members while UHPC members showed relatively small cross section loss, negligible increase in UHPC damage, no observable reduction in initial stiffness, and minimal loss in yield load capacity. The effect of oxygen supply level on the corrosion performance is also explored showing that the corrosion rate of reinforced UHPC specimens were limited due to depleted oxygen at the steel-UHPC surface. Numerical simulation results were verified against experimental trends on corrosion performance of reinforced UHPC specimens. Further, the numerical framework herein provides an alternative way in predicting deterioration processes and evaluating service life performance of ductile reinforced concrete infrastructures in a computationally efficient manner.
AB - Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) has superior durability characteristics over traditional concrete. Improved durability behavior of UHPC has been attributed to the dense material property, which effectively constrains harmful material ingress and oxygen supply. However, the corrosion performance of reinforced UHPC under sustained mechanical loading, which may induce cracking, in addition to environmental conditioning is still not well characterized. This study investigates the electrochemical-mechanical coupling effects on deterioration mechanisms of reinforced UHPC beams subjected to service loading conditions and chloride attack through multi-physics simulation techniques. Finite element models were simulated considering the cracking induced by service loads and deformations caused by rust expansion on the cementitious matrix. Material transport properties such as chloride and oxygen penetration parameters were updated in each step of the time-dependent process based on cracking conditions. The simulation results show that there is substantial steel cross section and yielding load capacity loss, initial stiffness reduction, and damage area increase in reinforced concrete members while UHPC members showed relatively small cross section loss, negligible increase in UHPC damage, no observable reduction in initial stiffness, and minimal loss in yield load capacity. The effect of oxygen supply level on the corrosion performance is also explored showing that the corrosion rate of reinforced UHPC specimens were limited due to depleted oxygen at the steel-UHPC surface. Numerical simulation results were verified against experimental trends on corrosion performance of reinforced UHPC specimens. Further, the numerical framework herein provides an alternative way in predicting deterioration processes and evaluating service life performance of ductile reinforced concrete infrastructures in a computationally efficient manner.
KW - Corrosion
KW - Crack
KW - Finite element modeling
KW - Multi-physics
KW - Time-dependent
KW - UHPC
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U2 - 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.127805
DO - 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.127805
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85130185100
SN - 0950-0618
VL - 340
JO - Construction and Building Materials
JF - Construction and Building Materials
M1 - 127805
ER -