Performance of Coated Reinforcing Bars in Cracked Bridge Decks
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Volume 10, Issue 3
Abstract
The presence of cracks in bridge decks that are reinforced with epoxy-coated reinforcing (ECR) bars has raised some concerns among bridge and maintenance engineers in the state of Iowa. To study the effects of deck cracking on the performance of ECR bars, several concrete cores that contained reinforcing bars were collected from 80 bridges that are located in different counties throughout the state of Iowa. These samples were collected from cracked and uncracked areas of the bridge decks. Concrete powder samples were collected from these cores and were analyzed in the laboratory to determine the diffusion of the chloride in the bridge decks. This study revealed that no sign of corrosion was detected for the ECR rebars that were taken at the uncracked bridge deck locations. In addition, no delamination or spalling was observed for the bridge decks where bars in the core samples, which were taken at the cracked bridge deck locations, exhibited signs of corrosion. The collected ECR rebars samples were rated according to the degree of the corrosion that was observed on each bar. These ratings were used to develop condition/age relationships that were utilized to estimate the functional service life of bridge decks that are reinforced with ECR bars.
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Acknowledgments
The study presented in this manuscript was sponsored by the Iowa Highway Division, Iowa DOT, and the Iowa Highway Research Board under research project TR-405.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 10 • Issue 3 • May 2005
Pages: 255 - 261
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 31, 2001
Accepted: Aug 18, 2003
Published online: May 1, 2005
Published in print: May 2005
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