Experimental study on the behavior of RC beams with artificially corroded bars

Due to the adverse effects of local corrosion of bars on the behavior of reinforced concrete structures, this problem has been investigated by many experimental studies. Reducing the cross-sectional area of steel bars due to corrosion diminishes the bearing capacity. On the other hand, weakening the interaction characteristics be-tween bar and concrete due to the increase of steel corrosion significantly reduces the performance of reinforced concrete as a composite material. In this study, the effect of artificially localized corrosion of reinforcement on the structural behavior of reinforced concrete beams was investigated. The studied parameters include the length and location of the localized corroded section. A total of 5 RC beams were constructed and subjected to four-point bending load to investigate their performance. The results of these experiments showed that localized corrosion and increasing its length reduced the yield displacement and increased ultimate mid-span deflection of reinforced concrete beams. Local corrosion of steel bars had little effect on the change of elastic stiffness. However the stiffness corresponds to maximum strength due to artificial corrosion of reinforcement decreased significantly. Localized corrosion in the beam caused a significant increase in displacement corresponds to maximum strength. The specimens with steel corrosion had shear and shear-flexure failure pattern while the reference specimen showed flexural failure pattern.