Prediction of strength and drift capacity of corroded reinforced concrete columns

Steel reinforcement corrosion has been recognized as a major deterioration issue for the performance and safety of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. In this paper, the behavior of corroded RC columns under the seismic loading was studied using a three-dimensional (3D) non-linear Finite Element (FE) analysis, considering the material properties deterioration of reinforcement and concrete induced by corrosion. The experimental results of nine reinforced concrete (RC) columns in three experimental studies in literature were selected to verify the accuracy of the proposed 3D non-linear FE model. Thereafter, an extensive parametric investigation, including the FE models of 240 RC columns subjected to the simulated seismic loading was performed to study the influence of various crucial parameters on the seismic performance of corroded RC columns, particularly their lateral load resistance and ultimate drift capacity deterioration. Finally, these key parameters were incorporated into two prediction equations of the lateral load resistance and ultimate drift capacity for corroded RC columns.