TY - JOUR TI - Corrosion behavior of reinforced concrete bridge decks under laboratory and field conditions DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-x7v3-h165 PY - 2019 AB - Reinforced concrete is one of the most efficient building materials widely used across the world, however, corrosion of its embedded steel reinforcement is the most aggressive rival to its durability. Corrosion becomes more aggressive in the presence of cracks, which makes the ingress of chloride ions from deicing salts into concrete bridge decks more critical, leading to an annual cost of about 8.3 billion for mitigation and rehabilitation of bridge decks in the United States of America. The research consists of two components: laboratory testing and field monitoring. The laboratory testing is aimed at evaluating the effects of cracks and crack sealants in concrete specimens on the corrosion process using ASTM G109, and correlation of bridge deck service life and long-term predictions with field performance. The laboratory-based experimental program includes the use of various small-scale specimens as well as deck slabs to study the effect of various parameters such as crack width and depth as well as the efficiency of the crack sealants. Five types of steel reinforcement (Black, Duplex stainless, Galvanized, MMFX, and Epoxy-Coated), two types of concrete classes (class A and HPC), and two Sodium chloride concentrations (3% and 15%) were used. Additionally, four crack patterns, two different crack sealants, and two types of sensors (2000 silver-silver chloride electrode and multi element probes MEPs) were also used. On the other hand, the field work used corrosion sensors for 20 years to maintain the structural health monitoring (SHM) and data collection of two existing bridges, GSP 84.1 and 159.7. After three years of exposure to diluted as well as severe sodium chloride solutions, laboratory results show that concrete specimens with Duplex Stainless and MMFX steel rebars had an excellent corrosion resistance in comparison with Epoxy-coated rebars. Moreover, the crack depth has more influence than the crack width for all specimens. When the cracks are sealed using the T-70 MX crack sealant, it showed a remarkable efficiency in comparison with Seal Krete sealant. Additionally, results from the field monitoring of the two bridge decks show that Galvanized Steel rebars underwent noticeable corrosion activity in comparison with the Stainless Steel deck. Moreover, data collected from laboratory tests and field performance is used to validate results from simulation model to correlate service life predictions from accelerated laboratory-based tests. KW - Civil and Environmental Engineering KW - Reinforced concrete -- Corrosion KW - Concrete bridges -- Design and construction LA - eng ER -