Fatigue behaviour of concrete beams reinforced with corrosion resistant steel bars

Durability of rein forced concrete structures is affected by the corrosion of steel reinforcements. Certain structures are subjected to both fatigue loading and environmental corrosion. Fatigue coupled with corrosion can really be detrimental to reinforced concrete structures. The Indian steel industry has developed a new generation `corrosion resistant' steel bars by changing the chemistry of the steel. The paper describes the fatigue behaviour of concrete beams reinforced with `corrosion resistant' steel bars by carrying out experimental investigations under constant amplitude sinusoidal cyclic loading. In this experimental programme, a systematic study was carried out by designing concrete beams reinforced with corrosion resistant steel bars for 2 million load cycles and testing the same under cyclic loading. The paper also presents a description of a technique adopted to measure the deflection and crack width of beams under running condition of test. Observations made on crack growth, crack width and mid span deflection at maximum load limit with the increase in number of load cycles are also discussed in this paper.