Investigation on crack propagation of concrete cover induced by non-uniform corrosion of multiple rebars

A 2D diffusion-mechanical model was proposed to predict the reinforcement corrosion and concrete cover cracking. This work was focused on the time-dependent non-uniform corrosion of multiple reinforcing bars, and took into account the influence of adjacent rebars on crack propagation. Based on concrete damaged plasticity model, the non-uniform radial displacement generated by the corrosion expansion was applied on the steel/concrete interface, to simulate the failure behavior of concrete cover. Moreover, some necessary verifications of numerical results have been carried out. Parametric studies were conducted to investigate the effects of some key factors on cracking pattern, crack initiation and through time, as well as surface crack width. Finally, the influence of different reinforcement arrangements in a RC beam on cover cracking was discussed.