Numerical Modeling of Nonuniform Corrosion-Induced Concrete Crack Width

Corrosion of reinforced concrete is one of the major deterioration mechanisms that results in premature failure of the reinforced concrete structures. In practice, concrete crack width is one of the most important criteria for the assessment of the serviceability of concrete structures. Literature review suggests that little research has been undertaken on numerical prediction of concrete crack width, especially by considering the corrosion as a nonuniform process. This paper attempts to develop a numerical model to predict concrete crack width for corrosion-affected concrete structures under realistic nonuniform corrosion of the reinforcement. A nonuniform corrosion model was first formulated as a function of time. To simulate arbitrary cracking in concrete, cohesive elements are inserted in the sufficiently fine mesh that is achieved through a script written in Python. The surface crack width is obtained as a function of service time, and verification against experimental results from literature is conducted. Accurate prediction of crack width can allow timely maintenance, which prolongs the service life of the reinforced concrete structures.