A double-cylinder model incorporating confinement effects for the analysis of corrosion-caused cover cracking in reinforced concrete structures

In this paper, a double-cylinder model with a consideration of concrete confinement effects is proposed to simulate reinforcement corrosion-caused cover cracking. The analytical model incorporates force equilibrium in both tangential and radial directions as well as volume expansion and deformation compatibility in the steel-rust-concrete interface. Confinement effects outside the cylinders are taken into account by comparing the numerical and available experimental results. Parametric studies are conducted to investigate the variations of the critical volume of consumed steel, critical expansive pressure and time to cover cracking.