PSI - Issue 66

Ram Lal Riyar et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 66 (2024) 181–194 Ram Lal Riyar et. al./ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2025) 000–000

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displayed in Table 1.

Fig. 1. Geometrical Similar Beams with different dimensions.

2.2. Corrosion setup The corrosion study of reinforced concrete involved the selection of a medium-sized beam (900*200*100) and an 8 mm diameter reinforcing bar. The cured beams are removed and surface-dried for 24 hours under natural sunlight. Subsequently, they were soaked in a NaCl solution for 3 days before the current was supplied, before the initiation of the corrosion process. The voltage difference in the circuit was 5V, and the current density supplied was 200 µA/cm2 and 350 µA/cm2. The RC test beams were submerged in a 5% sodium chloride solution. A stainless copper plate was linked to the power supply's positive pole to act as the cathode, and a tensile steel bar was attached to the negative pole to act as the anode of the electrochemical reaction. The solution temperature was maintained at room temperature, 23 ± 20 C. The laboratory setup for corrosion testing and schematic diagram are shown in Figure 1. The three-point loading test was conducted using the servo-hydraulic machine. The popular damage detection method used here is Digital Image Correlation (DIC), a non-contact measuring methodology.

(a) (b) Fig. 2. (a) Schematic diagram of accelerated corrosion for steel bar in concrete, (b) Laboratory setup for accelerated corrosion of reinforced concrete. The three-point loading test was conducted using a servo-hydraulic machine. The beams were properly supported with the loading applied at the center of the span. The stainless-steel angles were attached to the diagonally opposite sides of the notch to measure the CMOD. The plot of load against displacement was taken directly from the system. For the Load versus CMOD plot, the strain gauges connected to the angles measured the expansion of the crack. A video recording was made to capture the loading process and the readings from the strain gauge at the notch. The graph of Load versus CMOD was obtained by extracting the data from the video at every point of load change. The beam was loaded up to failure. The graphs obtained from plotting Load versus CMOD and Load versus mid-span deflection can be utilized to determine the fracture parameters. Various techniques have been developed, such as visual examination, dye-penetration, X-Ray computed tomography, to enhance our comprehension of crack