Experimental investigation of corrosion damage on reinforced concrete beams to correlate crack width and mass loss

There is an increasing number of existing reinforced concrete structures deteriorated by chloride-induced corrosion. Quantifying the severity of the corrosion damage through different inspection measurements is vital to assess the damage level of the structure. Because corrosion cracking is a visible damage on the surface, it can provide engineers with important information regarding the damage state as well as the mass loss level. In order to study the cracking as an indicator of corrosion damage, this paper presents an accelerated corrosion experiment on singly reinforced beams with one ribbed or smooth rebar. The results clearly show distinct cracking ranges as a function of the corrosion damage. They also show a good linear relation between the cracking and the mass loss level. Finally, it is observed that the different mass loss prediction models found in the literature were not fully adequate to predict the results of the current experiment.