Influence of cover on the flexural performance of deteriorated reinforced concrete beams

Reinforcement corrosion is the principal cause of deterioration of reinforced concrete. It has been estimated that around Euro 1.5 bn is spent annually in Europe on concrete repairs to increase the service life of deteriorated structural members. In order to obtain a better understanding of the flexural performance of deteriorated reinforced concrete beams, a series of tests was conducted on 28 laboratory sized specimens. Main steel reinforcement was corroded along the entire span with target corrosion ranging from 0% (control) to 20% in 5% increments. The influence of three different covers to the main steel reinforcement (20, 30 and 50 mm) was investigated and related to the flexural performance.