Modeling non-uniform corrosion in reinforced concrete bridge piers

Steel corrosion in Reinforced Concrete (RC) bridge piers may occur due to particular environmental expositions or percolation of aggressive water from superstructures. In some cases, the causes of corrosion are non-uniformly distributed and produce non-homogeneous spatial deterioration patterns that can modify the capacity of the piers both in terms of strength and ductility with potential consequences on the overall bridge performances, especially for bridges located in seismic regions. The modeling of this type of situations represents specific challenges related to the description of the deterioration patterns and the calibration of material properties. A multi-level modeling approach for RC bridge piers subject to arbitrarily non-uniform corrosion patterns tailored to be used for the assessment of real bridges is proposed. A specific software implementation of the modeling has been developed in OpenSeesPy and is also described.