Nonlinear dynamic behaviour of severely corroded reinforced concrete columns: shaking table study

A set of benchmark, medium scale, shaking table tests on corroded reinforced concrete (RC) columns is conducted with the aim of investigating the effects of corrosion damage on the nonlinear dynamic behaviour of RC bridge piers. The experimental programme consists of an uncorroded control specimen and two corroded RC column specimens, with identical structural details. An accelerated corrosion procedure is used to corrode the RC columns. The uncorroded and corroded specimens are subjected to far-field long duration ground motion excitations. The two corroded columns had 51% and 65% average mass loss ratios. The testing sequence includes slight, extensive, and complete damage levels, followed by an aftershock to examine the cascade effect on the nonlinear dynamic response of the proposed RC columns. The experimental results show that corrosion changes the failure mode of the RC columns, and has a significant negative impact on the residual strength (about 50% mass loss results in about 80% strength reduction) and drift capacity of RC columns.