Concrete structures often exhibit a nonlinear behavior, called damage, which could bedescribed in terms of microcrack initiation, growth and coalescence leading to the creation ofmacrocracks. Deterioration of concrete affects not only the load deflection response of the structure, butalso leads to a higher penetration rate of harmful substances such as chlorides. A steel reinforcedconcrete beam subjected to the simultaneous action of loading and a chloride-laden environment isinvestigated in this study. A continuum damage mechanics model for predicting the location, orientationand size of cracks in the structure in a smeared is combined with a recent advective-diffusive model forpredicting chlorides penetration into concrete under variable saturation conditions to predict chloridespenetration in deteriorated concrete. The continuum damage model affects the transport properties ofconcrete in a smeared fashion according to the extent of damage in a given area as measured by acontinuum damage variable.Numerical simulations are used to assess the effect of loading on water movement and chloride ionsingress by diffusion and advection under saturated or unsaturated conditions and their effects on rebarcorrosion. In turn, the effect of rebar corrosion on the degradation of both cover concrete and the rebarmechanical performance are taken into account leading to a synergy between the two major degradationmechanisms controlling the performance of the RC beam.
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