Reliability of Reinforced Concrete Structures under Chemical-Physical Attack

Both the concrete deterioration and steel corrosion are major problems affecting an increasing number of reinforced concrete structures. In this paper an unified approach, based on a coupled damage model, which is able to evaluate the strength reduction and the reliability of the structures is presented. The effects of chemical attack on concrete (e.g. expansive sulphate/chloride reaction) are investigated and considered in the numerical model. Moreover the deterioration of reinforced concrete structure due to reinforcement corrosion is included in the analysis.