Influence of chloride corrosion on the effective mechanical properties of steel reinforcement

This paper presents a methodology to develop advanced reduction factors for the effective mechanical properties of corroded steel reinforcement of reinforced concrete (RC) members. The reduction factors (mainly developed for bare steel reinforcement) reported in the literature scatter over a large range. In this regard, critical questions arise, such as the reliability and accuracy of the reduction factors of bare steel bars to evaluate residual capacity of corroded RC structure. This paper will provide answers to these questions based on reviewing past studies and the results observed from experimental inspection of corroded steel reinforcement carried out in this research. The results show using the reduction factors of bare steel bars to estimate residual capacity of corroded RC structures is not safe because they are significantly lower than the reduction that happens in real corroded RC columns.