Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

College of Engineering and Technology

Intramuros, Manila

CIV 520
Elective IV Prestressed Concrete

PAPER REVIEW
Behavior of Corroded Bonded Partially Prestressed Concrete Beams
By Mohamed Moawad, Anwar Mahmoud, Hossam El-karmoty and Ashraf El
zanaty

Submitted by:
ABERIN, Mark Andrew E.
2012-02571

Submitted to:
Engr. Salavador G. Oleivar

10 February 2017
 I. INTRODUCTION

Corrosion is a natural process, which converts a refined metal to a

more chemically-stable form, such as its oxide, hydroxide, or sulfide. It is the

gradual destruction of materials (usually metals) by chemical and/or

electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion doesnt only

affect structural steel structures but reinforced concrete structures and

prestressed structures as well. Corrosion of reinforcing steel and other

embedded metals is the leading cause of deterioration in concrete. When

steel corrodes, the resulting rust occupies a greater volume than the steel.

This expansion creates tensile stresses in the concrete, which can eventually

cause cracking, delamination, and spalling.

The Behavior of Corroded Bonded Partially Prestressed Concrete

Beams by Mohamed Moawad, Anwar Mahmoud, Hossam El-karmoty and

Ashraf El zanaty is a study that tackles about the effect of corrosion on

prestressed concrete beams. Prestressed concrete is widely used in the

construction industry in buildings. And corrosion of reinforcing steel is one of

the most important and prevalent mechanisms of deterioration for concrete

structures. As we all know, the rate of corrosion is higher on structures that

are near or on marine environments and with that, concrete structures will

experience unacceptable loss to load carrying capacity, stiffness and ductility

which will then cause failure.

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 On the first part of the paper, the researchers provided some facts and

statements of notable people that also researched about topics that are

related to this research. Some of these are F.H Omnia and El Hafnewy. F.H

Omnia studied the behavior of fully and partially prestressed concrete beams

and concluded that the presence of prestressing force delays the concrete

cracking and increases the initial stiffness. El-Hefnawy on the other side,

conducted another experimental study on carbonation depth. He measured

the carbonation depth for concrete of 18 months age for specimens

with/without silica fume by treating a freshly broken concrete surface by

phenolphthalein. He found that the addition of silica fume as partial

replacement of cement increases its tendency to react with carbon dioxide in

the atmosphere.

This research is based on the Egyptian code of practice for Reinforced

Concrete Construction. There may be some difference on the standards and

experimental procedures that we use here in the Philippines.

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 II. METHODOLOGY

Experimentation

The researchers will be testing six beams with over-all width, depth

and length of 150 mm, 400 mm and 4500 mm respectively, and the beams

were simply supported with a clear span of 4200 mm. This test procedure is

somehow similar with the test of flexure strength the only difference is that

the dimensions of the beam are bigger than what we usually use here. The

top longitudinal reinforcement of all specimen was two 10 mm diameter bars

every 200 mm at middle part of the beams and every 100 mm at edges for a

distance of 1400 mm from the support to the middle span of the beam. The

experimentation part is quite long but to summarize, the variables that are

considered in this study are the concrete compressive strength, and effect of

the location the corrosion. The concrete beams will be cured for 28 days and

then grouted with cementations according to specification instructions. It

was then prestressed. The prestressing process is as usual. The 12 mm

diameter strand that is used for prestressing were measured in terms of

elongation after a certain prestressing force has been applied.

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Material Properties

Natural siliceous sand and crushed stone had a nominal maximum size

of 10 mm. Ordinary Portland cement, silica fume, and tap drinking water

were used in this work. The researchers could have used Type I Portland

cement because it yields higher compressive strength. It is also good that

the add silica fumes which is also a good and natural cementitious material.

The researchers also used admixtures such as superplasticizers which are all

tested and has complied with the Egyptian standard. Deformed high grade

steel bars of 10 mm diameter with yield strength of 470 MPa and ultimate

strength of 610 MPa were used as stirrups and longitudinal tension and

compression reinforcements.

Fabrication

The researchers performed two stages of fabrication. The first one is

the casting of the six partially prestressed concrete beam. The second was

the corrosion technic of four beams. Two mixes were produce with the target

strength of 40 MPa and 80 MPa.

Corrosion Process

The first phase of the tests was speeding up the rate of corrosion of

steel reinforcements to induce deterioration of the partially prestressed

beams concrete. The researchers used the electrochemical accelerated

corrosion technique to accelerate the process. The natural corrosion process

is usually slow and takes a long time to initiate. Hence to enable corrosion

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and health monitoring of RC elements, the specimens are usually subjected

to accelerated corrosion. This push for speed becomes a cause for problems

such as difference in electrochemistry at the surface of steel rebar in

concrete due to difference in various accelerated corrosion techniques as

identified by some of the researchers in literature. On other researches that

Ive read, they investigated the effectiveness of three different accelerated

corrosion techniques namely alternate drying - wetting process, admixed

chloride diffusion method and impressed current technique based on

electrochemical and acoustic emission measurements. From the research it

was found that alternate drying - wetting process and impressed current

technique are more suitable than admixed chloride diffusion method.

Test Setup

The test setup is almost the same as the setup in performing the

flexural test. The beams are subjected to two concentrated loads at 700 mm

from midspan using two hydraulic jacks of 800 kN capacity. The beams were

tested up to failure using stroke control system.

Experimental result and analysis

Modes of failure and cracking:

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 1. Modes of failure of partially prestressed concrete beam with normal

compressive strength were more ductile than those partially

prestressed concrete beam with high compressive strength.

2. The crack pattern for partially prestressed concrete beams is

distributed along their entire length and has small crack width and high

number due to the grade of compressive strength of the concrete

beams.
3. The crack pattern of the partially prestressed beams of 80 MPa

compressive strength in region between the two concentrated loads

was distributed along this length with larger width and fewer numbers

than that observed in partially prestressed beams with 40 MPa.

The cracking pattern for beams exposed to corrosion was similar to the

control beams, in addition to the following observations:

1. The concrete color of the beams subjected to corrosion turned to

brown, at the corrosion rebar zone.

2. Irregular cracks at concrete cover with various thickness have

appeared along the beam length.

3. Hairline cracks at anchorage zone.

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 III. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

After obtaining and analyzing the results from this research, the

following conclusions can be drawn:

1. The increase of the compressive strength from 40 MPA to 80 MPa for

bonded partially prestressed concrete beams led to a slight increase in

the ultimate flexural capacity and initial stiffness due to corrosion by

up to 7.62% and 11.30% respectively. These attributed to the increase

of concrete compressive strength. Also, non-uniform hair cracks width

as the result of stress crack corrosion, which were observed in high

strength concrete beams, is smaller than that in ordinary strength

concrete.
2. The increase of the compressive strength from 40 MPa to 80 MPa for

bonded partially prestressed concrete beams lead to a decrease in the

ductility due to corrosion up to 22.58%. This decrease in ductility may

be attributed to the brittleness of high strength concrete as opposite to

ordinary strength concrete. Partially prestressed concrete beam with

ordinary compressive strength was developed. Well distributed cracks

along their span were smaller in width and bigger in number than

those of partially prestressed concrete beams with high strength

concrete.

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 3. The most of deterioration incident in partially prestressed beam acts

on non prestressed steel reinforcement. Because the bonded tendons

are less likely to corrode, occurrence of corrosion for bonded

prestressed steel strand is so complex and influenced by many factors.

This is often referred to as providing multilevel protection for

prestressed strand: cement grout is a barrier to moisture and chloride

penetration and produces an alkaline: duct works as a barrier to

moisture and chloride especially plastic duct without splices and

connections. It is preferred to use of more protection methods for non-

prestressed steel bar such that epoxy painting or complete filing of

grout in the plastic duct like prestressed strand.

4. The theoretical analysis based on strain compatibility and force

equilibrium gave a good prediction of the deformation behavior for

partially prestressed concrete beams with high and normal

compressive strength.

The research itself is well written and concise. It shows all the

information needed and it followed all necessary procedures under the

provisions of the Egyptian code. Researches like this will help engineers

assess all the things that may cause failure in prestressed concrete and that

includes corrosion. Deterioration and corrosion are evident in all types of

structure. Not only in steel but in reinforced concrete structures as well. As

we all know, concrete is good in compression and not in tension so

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reinforcement bars are needed to fill that gap. From this, we can truly say it

is still vulnerable to corrosion.

There are some things that I would like to recommend to those who

want to redo, revise or even continue the topic in this research. There are

many corrosion techniques that are faster and cost efficient. Future

researchers can use the wetting process, admixed chloride diffusion method

and impressed current technique based on electrochemical and acoustic

emission measurements. Based on a study, the first and the third technique

is the most suitable than the second one. Researchers can also use lower

strength concrete and check the range of effects that may occur when

corrosion happened. Future researches may also study on the corrosion

induced cracking that can affect the ductility of concrete as well. In addition,

the prestressed samples used are bonded which means that the prestressed

strands are covered and grouted. Therefore I recommend that future studies

may study the behavior of unbonded strands which is more prone to

corrosion.

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