Material investigations on Hennigsdorfer prestressing steel taken from bridge structures

There is a knowledge gap of the process of stress cracking corrosion even 20 years after the collapse of buildings as the result of hydrogen embrittlement stress corrosion cracking. The current codes of practice give a support in preventing and early detection of a possible sudden failure. However, there is still no systematic data base to the cause of the corrosion and the time flow of the process. Publications on results of structure investigations are limited to single buildings. In this article the systematic collection and evaluation of structural investigations of prestressed concrete bridges made of steel tendons produced in Hennigsdorf is described. This steel is sensitive to stress corrosion cracking according to the actual knowledge base. Basis of the results is the analysis of 31 bridges, which were assigned from different public administrations. On one side there is the evaluation of single values and on the other side it is pointed to the need for a uniform regulation for the analysis of the material properties. The most critical parameters according to the actual regulations (codes) were be analyzed in terms of their validity. Correlations between individual parameters respectively their possible influence on the process of the stress corrosion cracking was given. Finally, the creation of a knowledge database for the uniform collection and analysis of examination results is suggested.