Experimental Study on Fatigue Performance of Reinforced Concrete Beams in Corrosive Environment with Cyclic Loads

In marine environments,reinforced concrete bridge structures are sub-jected to cyclic loads and chloride ingress,which results in corrosion of the rein-forcing bars,early deterioration,durability loss,and a considerable reduction in the fatigue strength.Owing to the complexity of the problem and the difficulty of testing,there are few studies on the fatigue performance of concrete structures under the combined action of corrosion environment and cyclic load.Therefore,a coupling test device for corrosion and cyclic load is designed and fatigue tests of reinforced concrete beams in air environments and chlorine salt corrosive envir-onments are carried out.The fatigue corrosion process,damage mode,and corro-sion features of the test beams as well as chloride ion content in concrete are analyzed.The relationships of deflection,crack,and number of cycles in the dif-ferent environments are given.Results show that the fatigue life of the beam is.greatly reduced under coupled effects of the cyclic load and corrosive environ-ment,the failure fom of the beam is corrosion fatigue damage.The deflection and crack keeps growing with the increase in loading cycles.Under the coupling of cyclic load and corrosion env ironment,the content of chloride ion in concrete is low and there is less variety along the direction of penetration.

Modifying effects and mechanisms of superfine stainless wires on microstructures and mechanical properties of ultra-high performance seawater sea-sand concrete

Ultra-high-performance seawater sea-sand concrete(UHPSSC)presents a prospective solution to address the natural resource shortage in marine infrastructure construction.To eliminate the corrosion risk of steel fibers and broaden the applicability of UHPSSC,this study investigates the mechanical properties and free chloride ion content as well as microstructures of UHPSSC reinforced with superfine stainless wires(SSWs)under natural curing.The results indicate that 1.5%SSWs can remarkably improve the flexural strength and toughness of UHPSSC by 127%and 1724%,respectively,and mitigate the long-term strength degradation of UHPSSC.The strong interfacial bond between SSW and UHPSSC improves the compactness of UHPSSC,thus reducing the growth space for Ca(OH)_(2) crystals and swelling hydration products generated by sulfate and magnesium ions.This can be supported by the observed reduction in the Ca/Si ratio of C–S–H gels,CH crystal orientation index,and porosity.Moreover,through mechanisms such as pull-out,rupture,overlapping network,and internal anchor interface,SSWs effectively prevent microcrack growth and propagation,transforming single long-connected microcracks into multiple-emission microcracks centered on SSW.Additionally,the free chloride ion content of the composites at 28 and 180 d meets the ACI 318-19 standard requirements for concrete exposed to seawater.This compliance is attributed to the chloride immobilization facilitated by Friedel’s salt and C–S–H gels within the interfaces around SSWs and sea-sand.Consequently,SSWs-reinforced UHPSSC exhibits considerable potential for applications in sustainable marine infrastructures,demanding long-term mechanical properties and high durability.

Effects of coarse and fine aggregates on long-term mechanical properties of sea sand recycled aggregate concrete

Typical effects of coarse and fine aggregates on the long-term properties of sea sand recycled aggregate concrete(SSRAC)are analyzed by a series of axial compression tests.Two different types of fine(coarse)aggregates are considered:sea sand and river sand(natural and recycled coarse aggregates).Variations in SSRAC properties at different ages are investigated.A novel test system is developed via axial compression experiments and the digital image correlation method to obtain the deformation field and crack development of concrete.Supportive results show that the compressive strength of SSRAC increase with decreasing recycled coarse aggregate replacement percentage and increasing sea sand chloride ion content.The elastic modulus of SSRAC increases with age.However,the Poisson’s ratio reduces after 2 years.Typical axial stress-strain curves of SSRAC vary with age.Generally,the effect of coarse aggregates on the axial deformation of SSRAC is clear;however,the deformation differences between coarse aggregate and cement mortar reduce by adopting sea sand.The aggregate type changes the crack characteristics and propagation of SSRAC.Finally,an analytical expression is suggested to construct the long-term stress-strain curve of SSRAC.