Corrosion effects on the bond behaviour of steel bars in self-compacting
concrete
Adnan Al-Sibahy ⇑, Maha Sabhan
Civil Engineering Department, College of Engineering, The University of Al-Qadisiyah, Iraq
h i g h l i g h t s
Corrosion rate increases with an increase in the exposure time to the salts.
Concrete blocks with epoxy coating showed the highest reduction in pull-out value.
The pull-out strength value adversely affected with the appearance of corrosion.
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 25 November 2019
Received in revised form 6 February 2020
Accepted 25 February 2020
Keywords:
Corrosion
Epoxy coated
Pullout test
Bond strength
a b s t r a c t
This paper presents an experimental investigation conducted in order to evaluate the bond strength
behaviour of reinforced self-compacted concrete elements under corrosion conditions. Reinforced block
and beam samples were formulated using deformed steel bars with dimensions of Ø12.5 mm and
Ø25 mm. The hardened concrete samples were either cured in tap water or exposed to salt solution with
concentrations similar to those available in the soil and groundwater at the southern parts of Iraq. A suitable
epoxy was used for coating part of the formulated samples. The preliminary mechanical properties
and the rate of corrosion were firstly measured, the pullout and flexural bond-slip tests were then carried
out. A comparison was also made with the relevant code of practice.
The results obtained showed that both of compressive strength and density features exhibited notable
increase at early ages when the samples are exposed to salt solution. The adverse effect of such curing
condition appeared at the later ages when the corrosion rate became more intensive. The highest
decrease in the value of pullout strength was observed for the reinforced concrete block samples containing
epoxy coating reaching to 44.5% less than those cured in tap water. Identical behaviour was also noted
for the flexural bond-slip aspect. An appreciable improvement was suggested for the expression of bondstrength proposed by the CEB-FIP (CEB-FIP, 2010)