Life Assessment of Corroded Wire for Prestressing

Abstract

The repair of structural elements for the prestressing of reinforced concrete is necessarywhen existing prestressing wires are damaged or after a certain period of time. The objective of thispaper is to describe the methodology for the life assessment of corroded prestressing wires, sampledfrom prestressed concrete elements after a few decades of use. The aim of the presented research wasto determine the real properties of corroded wire in terms of the evaluation of remaining load capacityusing the Theory of Critical Distances (TCD). The methodology also includes spatial 3D characterizationof corroded surfaces, determination of mechanical properties, and Finite Element Analysis (FEA)of a model of wire with corrosion pits. The final goal of the presented methodology is to enable moreefficient evaluation of repair range and options for the elements of mechanical prestressing systemswithin various structures. The results and conclusions indicate that the developed methodology,based on the interdisciplinary approach and implementation of state-of-the-art methods, has a highapplicability potential for both static and fatigue fracture prediction in the case of prestressed wires.The proposed method has a huge potential for simple and fast prediction of the life assessment ofengineering structures, particularly for damaged elements with arbitrary geometry features