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Impact of material deterioration on the strength of reinforced concrete half-joint structures


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Authors

Lees, JM 
Morley, C 

Abstract

During the 1960’s and 1970’s a number of reinforced concrete (RC) bridges were constructed with ‘half-joints’ introduced into bridge decks. A half-joint is a particular type of RC structure that was introduced into bridge decks as a means of simplifying the design and construction operations. However, a major disadvantage is that there are problems associated with leakage of water through the joint leading to concrete deterioration and corrosion of the reinforcement. When assessing the integrity of existing half-joint structures, determining the influence of material deterioration and/or repair works is a challenge as current code provisions or guidelines do not provide guidance on how to take any associated strength losses into consideration. This paper focusses on the impact of changes in the material properties (such as compressive strength, yield strength of the reinforcement, reinforcement bar diameter, etc.) on the load bearing capacity of reinforced half-joint structures. The vulnerability of a typical half-joint design to these changes is analysed using finite element models. The results allow designers, assessors and decision makers to better quantify the impact of observed deterioration phenomena on the predicted strength of the studied half-joint.

Description

Keywords

assessment, bearing capacity, concrete bridge, corrosion, deterioration, half-joint

Journal Title

Safety, Robustness and Condition Assessment of Structures

Conference Name

IABSE Workshop, Helsinki 2015: Safety, Robustness and Condition Assessment of Structures

Journal ISSN

2221-3783

Volume Title

Publisher

International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE)
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K016148/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/J002887/1)