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Capacity Loss Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Bridges Located in Extreme Chloride-Laden Environment
Capacity Loss Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Bridges Located in Extreme Chloride-Laden Environment
To cite this article: Azadeh Alipour , Behrouz Shafei & Masanobu S. Shinozuka (2013) Capacity loss evaluation of reinforced
concrete bridges located in extreme chloride-laden environments, Structure and Infrastructure Engineering: Maintenance,
Management, Life-Cycle Design and Performance, 9:1, 8-27, DOI: 10.1080/15732479.2010.525243
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Structure and Infrastructure Engineering
Vol. 9, No. 1, January 2013, 8–27
This article provides a comprehensive procedure for the structural performance evaluation and life-cycle cost (LCC)
analysis of reinforced concrete highway bridges located in extreme chloride-laden environments. An integrated
computational methodology is developed to simulate the chloride intrusion and to estimate the corrosion initiation
time. The effects of various influential parameters on the chloride diffusion process are examined and the changes in
geometry and material properties of structural members are calculated over the entire life of the bridge. In order to
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evaluate the global structural degradation due to the corrosion mechanisms, an inventory of bridges with different
structural attributes are investigated. The extent of capacity loss is calculated using the moment-curvature and
nonlinear static (pushover) analysis. Results of this study are then utilised to find the LCC of bridges. Different
inspection and maintenance strategies are considered to minimise the total LCC, which includes the initial
construction cost, inspection and maintenance costs and service failure costs. The proposed approach indicates the
inspection and maintenance intervals in a way that the inspection and maintenance costs are optimised while the
safety of the bridge is ensured.
Keywords: reinforced concrete bridges; corrosion; structural performance; life-cycle cost; inspection and
maintenance strategies
reduction of the steel bar cross-section area and where CCl(x,t) is the chloride content at spatial
decrease in the yield strength of reinforcing bars. coordinate x and time t, Cs, the chloride content at
Based on that, the remaining capacity of a group of the surface of the structural member (at x ¼ 0), DCl,
RC bridges with different structural attributes is the diffusion coefficient, and erf (.), the error function.
evaluated over the time using the moment-curvature This model has been widely used in both deterministic
and nonlinear static (pushover) analysis. Furthermore, and probabilistic approaches to estimate the chloride
the service life-cycle cost (LCC) of RC bridges is content level and corrosion initiation time. Chatterji
carefully studied in order to find the maintenance (1995) and Kong et al. (2002) questioned the accuracy
strategies which optimise the required inspection of this model mainly for two reasons: first, the chloride
intervals and repair costs penetration in the concrete is not governed by a linear
diffusion equation; second, the parameters of initial
and boundary conditions as well as the chloride
2. Chloride intrusion diffusion coefficient are assumed to be constant while
The process of deterioration caused by the chloride- they vary spatially and temporally.
induced corrosion is usually divided into two main In order to improve Equation (1), Saetta et al.
phases: initiation and propagation. As it can be seen in (1993) developed a numerical approach using the
Figure 1, no corrosion occurs during the initiation conventional diffusion theory (Fick’s first law) and
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time. At this phase, only chloride ions gradually diffuse the mass conservation principal (Fick’s second law) to
through RC members towards the reinforcing bars. model the chloride diffusion into the concrete. In their
After chloride concentration at the depth of reinfor- proposed diffusion model, the coupled effects of
cing bars reaches its critical level, the propagation moisture and heat flows are also considered based on
phase begins. This phase itself consists of two stages: the approach given in Bažant and Najjar (1972). Xi
rust expansion and cracking. The structural degrada- and Bažant (1999) suggested a model for chloride
tion takes place after crack initiation. penetration in the saturated concrete, which takes into
Although no corrosion is seen during the initiation account both the binding capacity and chloride
period, it is essential to find when the chloride content diffusivity of the concrete. Later, Kong et al. (2002)
reaches the value at which the rust expansion and used the Xi and Bažant’s model to examine the rate of
cracking occurs. To determine the time to corrosion chloride ingress into the concrete by studying the
initiation, different models have been proposed during influence of water-to-cement ratio and curing time.
past three decades. The majority of mathematical Ababneh et al. (2003) then used the work of Xi and
models in the literature are based on the Fick’s second Bažant to develop a mathematical model for chloride
law (Tuutti 1982): penetration in the non-saturated concrete. In the
present article, the authors have extended the previous
numerical models to comprehensively consider the
x
CCl ðx; tÞ ¼ Cs 1 erf pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð1Þ simultaneous effects of the most influential parameters,
2 DCl t such as chloride binding capacity, free chloride
content, ambient temperature and relative humidity
in addition to concrete aging.
Figure 1. Schematic demonstration of the corrosion process where JCl is the flux of the chloride ions in a unitary
idealised to the initiation and propagation phases. area in a unit of time (kg m72 of concrete), DCl, the
10 A. Alipour et al.
chloride diffusion coefficient, called diffusivity (m2 reactions and it has no effects on the transfer of
s71), we, the evaporable water content (m3 of evapor- chloride ions. On the other hand, the evaporable water,
able water per m3 of concrete), and Cf, the free chloride which is identified as the water held in concrete pores,
concentration (kg m73 of pore solution). In Equation actively takes part in the diffusion process. According
(2), the negative sign indicates that the diffusion to Han (2007), the evaporable water content can be
process is in the opposite direction to that of increasing calculated as the summation of the capillary pore
the chloride concentration. Using Equation (2), the water, wc (m3 of capillary pore water per m3 of
chloride mass conservation relationship (i.e. Fick’s concrete), and gel pore water, wg (m3 of gel per m3 of
second law) can be expressed as below (Saetta et al. concrete), as below:
1993):
we ¼ wc þ wg ð7Þ
@Ct w
¼ divðJCl Þ ¼ div½DCl we gradðCf Þ ð3Þ
@t we ¼ 0:36a c=g ð8Þ
c w
1
Da ¼ F1 ðCb ÞDCl ¼ DCl ð6Þ
1 þ ð1=we Þ @Cb=@Cf
b @Cb b
Cb ¼ aF Cf F ! ¼ aF bF Cf F1 ð12Þ
@Cf
curing conditions and the chemical composition of water-to-cement ratio as well as temperature on DCl
steel and concrete. Among all these parameters, it has were examined. For a constant temperature of 258C,
been approved that the change in concrete mix they measured DCl as 2.6, 4.47 and 12.5 (610712 m2
properties, especially in the water-to-cement ratio, s71) for the water-to-cement ratios of 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6,
has a significant influence on the chloride diffusion respectively. The chloride diffusion coefficients ob-
coefficient (Bamforth and Price 1996, Papadakis et al. tained from the aforementioned studies have been
1996, Snyder 2001). The level of water-to-cement ratio compared in Figure 6. Review of all the available data
directly affects both the capillary porosity and perme- shows a similar trend of increase in DCl and indicates
ability of the concrete, which may result in significant that for the water-to-cement ratios in the common
changes in the diffusion rate of chloride ions. range of 0.3–0.5, the chloride diffusion coefficients are
A number of models have been developed to study almost similar.
the effects of water-to-cement ratio on the chloride The logarithm of the diffusion coefficient can be
diffusion coefficient. As a case in point, Collepardi related to the logarithm of the water-to-cement ratio
et al. (1970) found that when the water-to-cement ratio by the linear equation below:
of OPC concrete changes from 0.5 to 0.6, the DCl
increases from 1.7 to 3.3 (610712 m2 s71). In the other log DCl;ref ¼ a þ b logðw=cÞ ð13Þ
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Figure 8. Measured daily temperature for the Los Angeles area from 1995 to 2009 obtained from NOAA (left) and a sinusoidal
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2.2.3. Age of concrete Figure 9. Measured monthly relative humidity for Los
Concrete aging may cause a reduction in the chloride Angeles area obtained from NOAA and a half sinusoidal
diffusion coefficient. Due to the progress of hydration function fitted to available humidity data.
reactions with time, the porosity of cement decreases.
This slows down the diffusion process, especially and Bažant 1999, Kong et al. 2002). The modification
during the initial life of the concrete. According to factor can be expressed as:
Martin-Pèrez et al. (2001), the aging effect of the
concrete on the chloride diffusion coefficient, F4(te), is F5 ðCf Þ ¼ 1 kðCf Þn ð20Þ
introduced as: pffiffiffiffiffi
t m where k and n are empirical parameters, equal to 70
ref and 0.5, respectively. Based on Equation (20), the time-
F4 ðte Þ ¼ ð19Þ
t dependent free chloride content is directly related to
where tref is the reference time (equal to 28 day), and m, the diffusion coefficient and should be updated during
the empirical age factor assumed to equal 0.04. the diffusion process at desired time steps.
parameters. In this article, a finite difference algorithm as a function of the distance from the coastline. Based
has been developed to solve Equation (5) as a on a field study on 1158 bridges, McGee (1999)
boundary value problem in different time steps suggested a range of 0.03–2.95 kg m73 (of concrete)
(Alipour 2010). This algorithm helps to study the for surface chloride content at bridges located in the
effects of various influential parameters on the chloride coastal zones. Val (2004) also collected a set of data
intrusion process. As described in the earlier section, from the Mediterranean coasts and indicated a surface
these parameters include: evaporable water content chloride content of 7 kg m73 (of concrete) for
and chloride binding capacity, F1(Cb), ambient tem- structures directly placed on the coast. For the present
perature, F2(T), relative humidity, F3(h), age of article, it is assumed that the highway bridges under
concrete, F4(te) and existing free chloride content, study are located at a close distance from the coast and
F5(Cf). Considering all these parameters together in the sea salt spray is the only mode of exposure to
each time step results in a more realistic analysis of the chloride ions. As a result, the surface chloride content
chloride diffusion process and can provide an accurate can be taken equal to 5 kg m73 (of concrete) on
estimation of the corrosion initiation time. average.
The calculation time step for the developed finite Using all aforementioned assumptions, the devel-
difference algorithm has been assumed equal to 1 day oped finite difference algorithm calculates the free
and the algorithm continues until a specified chloride chloride content at different depths and time steps.
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threshold value is reached at the depth of the This algorithm is repeated for three different iso-
reinforcing bars. The time corresponding to this therms, including: linear, Langmuir and Freundlich.
threshold chloride content indicates the corrosion Assuming the water-to-cement ratio to equal 0.5, the
initiation time. At the beginning of analysis (t ¼ 0), free chloride content at the depth of 50 mm is shown in
the free chloride content within the depth of RC Figure 10. After obtaining the free chloride content at
member is considered to be zero from the assumption each time step, the bound and total chloride contents
that no chlorides have been added to the concrete can be calculated using Equations (10)–(12). The
mixture. change in free, bound and total chloride contents
The boundary values and initial conditions of during a 30-year period can be also seen in Figure 10
Equation (5) can be summarised as below: for three different isotherms.
As mentioned earlier, the chloride diffusion coeffi-
For t ¼ 0 : Cf ¼ 0 at x 4 0 cient in Equation (6) is updated at each time step of the
For t 0 : Cf ¼ Cs at x ¼ 0 developed algorithm. This update is because of the
effects of time-varying parameters, such as chloride
where Cs is the surface chloride content. The surface binding capacity, concrete age, temperature, humidity
chloride content may depend on various parameters, and free chloride content. Figure 11 shows the chloride
such as the composition of the concrete, location of the diffusion coefficient for Langmuir and Freundlich
structure, orientation of its surface, chloride concen- isotherms. The study of influential parameters shows
tration in the environment and the general conditions
of exposure with regard to rain and wind (Bertolini
2008).
For the structures located in coastal zones, there
are different types of exposure to chloride ions. Some
structures are completely or partially submerged in the
sea water and some are within the tidal or splash zones.
There are also many structures located in a relatively
small distance from the coastline, which makes them
vulnerable to the sea salt spray (water-borne chloride
ions carried by the wind). Depending on which of the
above is the case, the amount of surface chloride
content may vary.
According to Glass and Buenfeld (2000) and
Martin-Pèrez et al. (2001), a surface chloride content
of 17.7 kg m73 (of pore solution) simulates the
complete submersion in seawater while this value
increases to 90 kg m73 (of pore solution) for tidal or Figure 10. Change in free, bound, and total chloride
splash zones. The surface chloride content due to the contents during a 30-year period using three different
sea salt spray has smaller values and can be assumed binding isotherms.
16 A. Alipour et al.
Figure 11. Chloride diffusion coefficient calculated using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms.
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isotherm, the initiation time for different cover depths assumed to have a lognormal distribution with the
of 40, 50 and 60 mm would respectively be 7.23, 10.40 mean of 5 kg m73 and COV of 0.50.
and 14.20 years (Figure 13). It can be seen that the As mentioned earlier, the corrosion initiation time
values of corrosion initiation time obtained from the is defined as the time required to reach the chloride
developed algorithm lie well within the range of 7–20 threshold value at a specific depth of the RC member.
years, observed by Kong et al. (2002). With this definition, the chloride content at the level of
It is worth mentioning that the computational reinforcing bar can be considered as a demand
model discussed in this section carefully studies the parameter, D, and the chloride threshold value for
diffusion process and estimates the corrosion initiation corrosion initiation can be assumed as a resistance
time through a deterministic approach. Although the parameter, R. Employing a probabilistic approach, the
developed model significantly reduces the uncertainties demand parameter can be expressed as a probability
associated with the simplifying assumptions, it does distribution function at each time step by taking into
not consider the uncertainties corresponding to the account the uncertainties associated with influential
model parameters as independent random variables. parameters, such as chloride diffusion coefficient and
Based on the existing literature, parameters affecting surface chloride content. On the other hand, the
the corrosion initiation time have high variability. resistance parameter is an indicator of capacity of the
Hence, the effects of parameter variability are con- RC member before corrosion initiates and can be
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sidered in this section to improve the deterministic identified by the chloride threshold value, Ccritical. In
model to a more reliable probabilistic approach. the current study, a normal distribution function with
Towards this goal, those parameters which have the mean of 3.5 kg m73 (equal to 1% of cement
the most influence on the corrosion initiation time are weight) and COV of 0.20 has been assumed for the
studied. Assuming no variation in concrete cover chloride threshold value.
depth, selected random variables in the current study To predict the probability distribution function of
include: reference chloride diffusion coefficient, DCl,ref, demand at different time steps, a set of 10,000 Monte
surface chloride content, Cs and chloride threshold Carlo simulations is performed to calculate the total
value, Ccritical. As stated in Equation (13), the chloride chloride content, Ct, at the level of reinforcing bars. In
diffusion coefficient is a function of water-to-cement these simulations, the chloride diffusion coefficient and
ratio. A normal distribution function can be assigned surface chloride content are random variables with
to the water-to-cement ratio with the mean value of 0.5 lognormal distributions. Considering the probability
and coefficient of variation (COV) of 3–5%, according distribution of chloride content (demand) obtained
to ACI (2009). Using Equation (13), a lognormal from Monte Carlo simulations at each time step, the
distribution with the mean of 6.73 (610712 m2 s71) measure of risk in terms of probability of exceeding the
and COV of 0.076 is obtained for the chloride diffusion capacity level can be expressed as:
coefficient. The surface chloride content is also
pf ¼ P½Ccritical < Ct
Z 1 Z ct
¼ fc critical ðccritical Þdccritical fct ðct Þdct
Z0 1 0
¼ Fccritical ðct Þfct ðct Þdct ð22Þ
0
initiation time for the cover depth of 50 mm. 4.1. Crack initiation time
To predict the time to crack initiation, the ratio of
to the deterministically estimated time. A more Mloss to the initial mass of steel, M0, should be
detailed discussion on the comparison between deter- calculated at each time step. The percentage of steel
ministic and probabilistic approaches can be found in mass loss, m(t), is given by:
Alipour et al. (2010).
Mloss ðtÞ
mðtÞ ¼ 100 ð26Þ
M0
4. Crack initiation and propagation
The RC members lose their strength and ductility The time corresponding to the point that the m(t)
because of crack initiation and propagation. Hence, equals to the mcritical is marked as the time to crack
the study of corrosion-induced cracks is necessary to initiation. The mcritical represents the threshold value of
estimate the extent of structural degradation over the steel loss for crack initiation and can be calculated
life-cycle of structures. In order to calculate the using the formula developed by El Maadawy and
corrosion crack initiation time, the Faraday’s Law is Soudki (2007), as below:
used. As it can be seen in Equation (23), the mass of
400
steel consumed over the time, Mloss, is related to the mcritical ¼ ½dc fct ðc þ 1 þ nÞðD0 þ 2d0 Þ
amount of current (A) that flows through the electro- D20 ðg 1ÞEeff
chemical corrosion cell. þ D0 d0 Eeff ð27Þ
the reinforcing bar is a thick-walled concrete cylinder; corrosion tests on the steel bars embedded in concrete
(2) the concrete is a homogeneous material; (3) there is and concluded that the strength of bars decreases
a porous zone at the steel-to-concrete interface, that significantly with chloride penetration. Their test
the corrosion products must fill before they can expand results are in reasonable agreement with other studies,
and create pressure on the concrete surrounding the such as Andrade et al. (1991), Lee et al. (1996) and
reinforcing bar. Morinaga (1996). Therefore, the empirical equation
below proposed by Du et al. (2005a,b) is used to
estimate the reduction in the yield strength of corroded
4.2. Degradation of corroded RC members reinforcing bars.
According to AASHTO Guide Manual for the
condition evaluation of highway bridges (2005), it is fy ðtÞ ¼ ð1 0:005mðtÞÞfy0 ð31Þ
necessary to consider the modified geometry and
material properties of the structural members for the where fy(t) is the yield strength of corroded reinforce-
condition assessment of deteriorated bridges. For this ment at each time step, fy0, the yield strength of non-
purpose, this article specifically studies the reduction corroded reinforcement, and t, the time elapsed since
rate of the diameter and yield strength of the steel corrosion initiation. The reduced rebar cross-section
reinforcing bars in corroded RC members. Further-
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Table 1. Reduced mass diameter and yield strength of reinforcing bars at 5-year time intervals.
Timea (year) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
(Mloss/M0)6100 0.00 6.38 12.24 18.10 23.96 29.82 35.68 41.54 47.40 53.26 59.12
D (mm) 35.80 34.75 33.61 32.46 31.32 30.17 29.03 27.88 26.74 25.59 24.45
fy/fy0 1.00 0.97 0.94 0.91 0.88 0.85 0.82 0.79 0.76 0.73 0.70
shortly after the corrosion initiation time, this article box girders with slopped external girders. The total
assumes the corrosion initiation time as the service- concrete cross-section of deck is approximately 12 m2.
ability threshold time. Furthermore, it is widely The bridges have only one interior bent with two circular
accepted that the crack width of more than 1 mm columns. Both columns of each bent have the same
indicates the performance failure of the concrete cover. diameter and height. The diameter of columns varies
The time corresponding to this crack width has also from 1.3 to 1.9 m based on the bridge span length. Each
been calculated equal to 542 days (1.48 year) after of short-, medium- and long-span categories also
corrosion initiation time. Since the capacity of includes bridges with three column height levels of 7.5,
structures under study will be evaluated every 5 years 10.0 and 12.5 m. Figure 15 illustrates a schematic
after the corrosion initiation time, it is assumed that view of the bridges under study.
the concrete cover is destroyed at the time of the first
analysis interval.
5.1. Modelling assumptions
The structural analysis of RC bridges has been carried
5. Inventory of RC bridges under study out with the OpenSees software (2009). As an object-
In order to evaluate the effects of the corrosion process oriented finite element software, OpenSees is used to
on the performance of RC bridges, an inventory of assess the structural performance of the bridges under
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bridges has been developed for the current study. These corrosion scenarios defined in the earlier sections of
bridges represent the RC bridges located in the Los this article. The developed bridge models consist of
Angeles area and can satisfy the current design require- superstructure elements, columns, abutments and fixed
ments. To better quantify the structural degradation and foundations.
capacity loss due to the corrosion process, the bridges
with two equal spans are considered in the present paper.
The bridges under study have three different span 5.1.1. Superstructure
lengths of 15, 30 and 45 m, representing the short-, The superstructure is modelled using linear-elastic
medium- and long-span bridges, respectively. The deck elements. In the ordinary bridges, the columns and
width is constant for all the bridges and it is designed for abutments are usually expected to experience the
four traffic lanes. The deck section consists of concrete inelastic behaviour. As a result, the superstructure
remains in the elastic range and no nonlinearity is crack propagation, the concrete cover is destroyed
needed to be assigned to the superstructure elements. shortly after the crack initiation time, as calculated in
Furthermore, since the concrete superstructure always Section 4.2. Furthermore, considering Equations (30)
experiences some cracks due to loading conditions, the and (31), the diameter and yield strength of steel bars
cracked section properties should be calculated before decrease over the time according to Table 1. As it can
analysis. According to the Caltrans seismic design be seen from the moment-curvature analysis of the
criteria (SDC 2006), the flexural stiffness of concrete column cross-section, the mentioned degradations
box girder superstructures can be modified by a factor directly reduce the load bearing capacity of columns.
of 0.50 to 0.75 in order to reflect the effects of this type Since the columns have a key role in resisting lateral
of cracking. loads, any reduction in column capacity causes a
significant capacity loss for the entire bridge system. In
the present article, the pushover analysis is used as a
5.1.2. Column measure to illustrate how the lateral load resistance of
The columns are modelled using inelastic beam- a bridge drops after the corrosion initiation time.
column elements. In these elements, the plasticity has The moment-curvature (M7j) analysis is used to
been concentrated over a specified length of element calculate the plastic moment capacity of ductile
ends and it is used to model the plastic hinge zone of concrete members based on expected material proper-
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the columns (OpenSees 2009). The column cross- ties. This analysis derives the curvatures associated
section is modelled using the fibre section module with a range of moments for a concrete cross section
available in OpenSees, while the reinforcing bars of based on the principles of strain compatibility and the
concrete section are modelled in two layers considering equilibrium of forces. The M7j curve can be idealised
the expected steel properties. The stress–strain rela- with a bilinear elastic perfectly-plastic curve to
tionship of confined concrete is developed using estimate the yield and plastic curvature as well as the
Mander’s model (Mander et al. 1988, Priestley et al. moment capacity of column cross section. In the
1996) in order to capture the capacity and behaviour of current study, the M7j curves have been developed
the bridge columns accurately. for all bridge models considering the mentioned
changes in member properties. The moment-curvature
analysis has been repeated 11 times for each bridge in
5.1.3. Abutment order to take into account the structural degradation
The model for abutment consists of a rigid element during the life-cycle of bridge, which is over a period of
with the length equal to the superstructure width, 50 years. The analysis starts with the intact bridge
connected to the superstructure centerline through a (before corrosion initiation time) and continues with
rigid joint. At both ends of the rigid element, there are the deteriorated bridge in consecutive 5-year time
three spring components that carry the nonlinear intervals.
response of the abutment in longitudinal, transverse Figure 16 shows the M7j curves for the short-
and vertical directions. In each direction, a zero-length span bridge with the column diameter of 1.3 m and
element is assigned with a nonlinear stiffness which is column height of 7.5 m. It is evident that as the bridge
dependent upon the material properties of the abut- deteriorates, the M7j curve has a drop in the yield
ment backfill. The stiffness and strength of these and plastic moment capacities. The trend of change in
springs are determined from Section 7.8.1 of Caltrans the plastic moment capacity of different bridge cases
SDC (2006). It should be mentioned that a gap element can be seen in Figure 17 for a 50-year life-cycle after
has also been added to the abutment model in the the corrosion initiation time. Since the moment-
longitudinal direction to consider the 5 cm expansion curvature analysis is independent of column height,
joint of the bridges. the plastic moment capacity is the same for all bridges
that have the same column cross-section. From Figure
17, it can be concluded that the plastic moment
5.2. Capacity evaluation of deteriorated bridges capacity of short-, medium- and long-span bridges
The developed bridge models are used to evaluate the under study decreases by 77, 85 and 92% after 50
effects of the corrosion process on the performance of years. It is clear that in the case of not taking
typical RC bridges. As described in the previous appropriate maintenance actions, the risk of structural
sections, the properties of structural members change failure increases drastically.
after the corrosion initiation time and a gradual The second measure to evaluate the lateral capacity
capacity loss is expected for the entire bridge. The of the bridge is the nonlinear static (pushover) analysis.
deteriorated properties can be mainly found at the In the pushover analysis, monotonically increasing
concrete cover and the reinforcing bars. Because of lateral forces are applied to the nonlinear model of the
22 A. Alipour et al.
entire bridge until the displacement of the control node defined here as 99% of the maximum base shear of
at the deck level exceeds the target displacement the bridge obtained from pushover analysis. The
(assumed to equal 1.00 m). For the pushover analysis, changes in base shear capacity of all the bridge cases
both material and geometric nonlinearities are con- have been shown in Figure 19. This figure summarises
sidered and the gravity loads are applied to the the capacity loss of bridges with different structural
structure before the analysis starts. This procedure attributes. The drop in base shear capacity can be seen
evaluates the overall strength of bridge, typically in 10-year time intervals, which has an average value of
measured through the base shear capacity. 49, 51 and 54% for the short-, medium- and long-span
All the developed bridge models have been bridges over 50 years.
analysed using the pushover analysis procedure. The
pushover curves for the short-span bridge with the
column diameter of 1.3 m and column height of 7.5 m 6. Life-cycle cost analysis
is shown in Figure 18. It is evident from this figure that The LCC of a structure is defined as the total cost
as the bridge deteriorates, the yield point happens at a of the structure from the beginning of planning
smaller displacement and the base shear capacity for construction to the end of its service life time.
decreases significantly. The base shear capacity is
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Figure 16. Moment-curvature plots for the short-span Figure 18. Pushover curves for the short-span bridge with
bridge with the column diameter of 1.3 m and column the column diameter of 1.3 m and column height of 7.5 m,
height of 7.5 m, deteriorated over 50 years. deteriorated over 50 years.
The LCC analysis provides a framework that helps to long-span bridges under study can be seen in Table 2.
allocate appropriate resources for design, construction Their inspection and maintenance costs as well as their
and operation of the structure. The focus of the current failure costs will be discussed in the upcoming sections.
study is on the LCC analysis of RC bridges located in
extreme chloride-laden environments. The extent of
structural capacity loss due to the corrosion process 6.1. Inspection and maintenance costs
was shown in the previous section and it can be clearly The cost of inspection and maintenance is expected to
understood that the regular inspection and mainte- be incurred at regular time intervals, Dt. The inspection
nance of bridges are necessary in order to avoid any cost is calculated as:
structural failure. From the resources point of view, it
X
n
is also important to optimise the inspection and CIN ¼ SzðiDtÞ ð35Þ
maintenance schedules in a way that the total cost of i¼1
structure is minimised while the structure satisfies the
performance requirements. where S is the cost of each inspection, n, the number of
The LCC of a bridge consists of a one-time initial maintenance intervals, and z, the discount factor from
cost associated with design and construction of the Equation (34). It can be seen that by increasing the
bridge and regular inspection and maintenance costs number of inspections, n, during the life-cycle of
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necessary at certain time intervals. The general formula the bridge, the inspection cost rises accordingly. For
for LCC analysis can be expressed as follows: the bridges under study, the inspection cost is assumed to
equal 0.5% of the construction cost. The maintenance
LCC ¼ Cc þ ½CIN þ CM þ CuM þ ½Csf þ Cusf ð33Þ cost over a structure’s life span can be expressed as:
X
n
where Cc is the initial construction cost, CIN, the CM ¼ MzðiDtÞ ð36Þ
inspection cost, CM, the maintenance cost, CuM , the i¼1
user cost associated with the maintenance procedure,
Csf, the bridge service failure cost and Cusf , the user cost where M is the cost of maintenance activity in base
associated with the probable service failure. The year prices. The maintenance cost is usually assumed
inflation is also taken into account by dominating between 0.5% and 1.0% of the construction cost, but
future maintenance expenditures in base year prices. since it is expected that the maintenance cost increases
These recurrent maintenance costs are combined by as the bridge ages, it is assumed here that the
weighing them according to a discount factor that maintenance cost has a linear increasing trend from
takes into account the time value of the money. The 0.5 to 1.0% during the structure’s service life time.
discount factor, z(t), is defined as: In addition to the direct maintenance costs, the user
cost associated with the temporary closure of facilities
zðtÞ ¼ ð1 þ rÞt ð34Þ should also be considered. The actual user cost during
the regular maintenance work depends on the extent
where r is the discount rate indicating the expected and duration of service disruption (Chang and
market rate of return on an investment. The choice of Shinozuka 1996). This can be expressed as:
discount rate is often disputable in LCC analysis. In X
n
practice, the discount rate ranges from 2 to 8%. CuM ¼ tm bm uzðiDtÞ ð37Þ
Generally, choosing a high discount rate favours short i¼1
service life time while a low discount rate encourages a
longer service life time.
The initial cost of construction is assumed to be
the summation of the costs of the bridge components. Table 2. LCC of short-, medium-, and long-span bridges
under study, including initial construction cost, inspection
The cost of the deck is computed as the total area
and maintenance costs and service failure costs.
of the deck multiplied by a cost per unit deck area.
Caltrans Contract Cost Data (2008) suggests $380 per Bridge case Short-span Medium-span Long-span
m2 for deck construction cost. For bridge piers, the
Cc $361,151 $500,117 $639,083
construction cost includes the cost of steel work and CIN $122,557 $169,716 $216,874
concrete work. After calculating the total volumes of CM $154,744 $214,288 $273,832
the steel and concrete, the pier cost can be estimated by CuM $95,171 $95,171 $95,171
assuming $4 per kg of steel and $840 per m3 of concrete Csf $90,085 $124,749 $159,412
Cusf $45,471 $45,471 $45,471
according to Caltrans Contract Cost Data (2008). The Ctotal $869,179 $1,149,512 $1,429,843
average total construction cost of short-, medium- and
24 A. Alipour et al.
Table 3. Effects of inspection/maintenance intervals on the life cycle cost of the medium-span bridge.
7. Conclusions
RC highway bridges are continuously exposed to
different environmental stressors during their service
life time. Chloride-induced corrosion is one of dete-
rioration mechanisms that causes serious structural
degradation and may result in the service failure of the
Figure 21. Ratio of different cost items to the initial entire bridge. This article develops a comprehensive
construction cost. framework to study the chloride intrusion mechanisms
and predict the progress of corrosion in RC members.
Through this study, the effects of various influential
parameters, such as water-to-cement ratio, ambient
temperature, relative humidity, concrete age, free
chloride content and binding capacity, are carefully
considered for an accurate estimation of the chloride
penetration profile in deteriorating structural members
over the time.
The corrosion initiation time is estimated by
comparing the chloride content values in the vicinity
of reinforcing bars the with critical thresholds. After
the determination of the corrosion initiation time, the
rate of reduction in geometry and material properties
due to the corrosion process is calculated at different
time steps. This article specifically considers the
reduction rate of diameter and yield strength of
Figure 22. Total LCC of the medium-span bridge obtained reinforcing bars in corroded members. The crack
for different inspection and maintenance intervals. initiation and propagation in concrete cover is also
investigated in order to modify the confinement
time schedules. The ratio of different cost types to the assumptions required for capacity evaluation. Based
initial construction cost are depicted in Figure 21. on the updated structural characteristics of corroded
Referring to Table 3 and Figure 21, when the members, the capacity loss of a group of RC bridges
inspection intervals increase, the costs associated with with short-, medium- and long spans is evaluated. In
the inspection and maintenance decrease but this addition to the structural degradation, the effects of
causes a significant increase in the service failure cost. the corrosion process on the LCC of bridges are also
The total LCC of the bridge has been shown in studied. From the detailed calculation of construction,
26 A. Alipour et al.
inspection, maintenance and service failure costs of the Du, Y.G., Clark, L.A., and Chan, A.H.C., 2005a. Residual
bridges, this article examines various inspection and capacity of corroded reinforcing bars. Magazine of
Concrete Research, 57 (3), 135–147.
maintenance strategies and suggests the optimised Du, Y.G., Clark, L.A., and Chan, A.H.C., 2005b. Effect of
inspection and maintenance intervals. The proposed corrosion on ductility of reinforcing bars. Magazine of
procedure minimises the total LCC of the bridge while Concrete Research, 57 (7), 407–419.
maintains its expected structural performance. El Maaddawy, T. and Soudki, K., 2007. A model for
prediction of time from corrosion initiation to corrosion
cracking. Journal of Cement and Concrete Composites, 29
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