• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.641-646
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• 2000

This paper describes an experimental investigation on the influence of concrete cover thickness on tension stiffening behavior. Total 36 direct tension specimens were tested with variation of cover thickness. Three different concrete compressive strengths were also considered. After cracking, as the cover thickness becomes thinner and the concrete strength becomes higher, tensile stiffness is decreased. Thereby an increase in cover thickness results in increase of the tensile cracking load and tension stiffening effect. Also the increase in concrete strength results in sudden decrease in tension stiffening effect. Hence, the cover thickness and concrete strength are proved to be important factors in tension stiffening behavior.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.3 no.2_3
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• pp.145-161
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• 2006

This article involves architecting prototype-fuzzy expert system for designing the nominal cover thickness by means of fuzzy inference for quantitatively representing the environment affecting factor to reinforced concrete in chloride-induced corrosion environment. In this work, nominal cover thickness to reinforcement in concrete was determined by the sum of minimum cover thickness and tolerance to that defined from skill level, constructability and the significance of member. Several variables defining the quality of concrete and environment affecting factor (EAF) including relative humidity, temperature, cyclic wet and dry, and the distance from coast were treated as fuzzy variables. To qualify EAF the environment conditions of cycle degree of wet-dry, relative humidity, distance from coast and temperature were used as input variables. To determine the nominal cover thickness a qualified EAF, concrete grade, and watercement ratio were used. The membership functions of each fuzzy variable were generated from the engineering knowledge and intuition based on some references as well as some international codes of practice.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2017

The paper concerns concrete carbonation, the phenomena that occurs in every type of climate, especially in urban-industrial areas. In European Standards, including Eurocode (EC) for concrete structures the demanded durability of construction located in the conditions of the carbonation threat is mainly assured by the selection of suitable thickness of reinforcement cover. According to EC0 and EC2, the thickness of the cover in the particular class of exposure depends on the structural class/category and concrete compressive strength class which is determined by cement content and water-cement ratio (thus the quantitative composition) but it is not differentiated for various cements, nor additives (i.e., qualitative composition), nor technological types of concrete. As a consequence the selected thickness of concrete cover is in fact a far estimation - sometimes too exaggerated (too safe or too risky). The paper presents the elaborated "self-terminated carbonation model" that includes abovementioned factors and enables to indicate the maximal possible depth of carbonation. This is possible because presented model is a hyperbolic function of carbonation depth in time (the other models published in the literature use the parabolic function that theoretically assume the infinite increase of carbonation depth value). The paper discusses the presented model in comparison to other models published in the literature, moreover it contains the algorithm of concrete cover design with use of the model as well as an example of calculation of the cover thickness.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.323-326
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• 2005

Uniaxial tension test of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) bar reinforced concrete prisms was performed. The objective was to investigate the adequate cover thickness of the GFRP rebars. The tension stiffening effect of GFRP bar reinforced concrete was also studied. The test variables included rebar types (conventional steel rebar and two different GFRP rebars) and cover thicknesses (five different cover thicknesses ranging between 1-3db). Normal strength concrete was used. Cracking patterns on concrete surface and cracking loads were careful1y observed during the direct tensile test. The test results indicated that the adequate cover thickness of the GFRP rebars may even be larger than that of the steel rebars and that the cover thickness of 2db commonly specified for the GFRP rebars may not be large enough. The tension stiffening effect of the GFRP rebars was also quantified and documented from the test results.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2009

Concrete carbonation is a cause of problems in concrete structures, so it needs to be estimated. And concrete cover is designed to protect structures from this damaging. Usually the cover thickness is considered based on the limit states design codes in which the important target is the reliability safety index. However, it is not clear that whether the safety index determined is optimal or not with respect to the cost. The codes are mainly proceeded quantitatively (i.e. making a safe structure) while the economic aspects are only considered qualitatively. So the reliability-based design considering life cycle cost (LCC) is called for, and here the focus is on the advanced analysis solution to optimize the reliability safety regarding LCC.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.693-700
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• 2017

Concrete cover cracking due to the corrosion of steel reinforcing bars is one of the main causes of deterioration in Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures. The oxidation level of the bars causes varying levels of expansion. The rebar expansions could lead to through-thickness cracking of the concrete cover, where depending on the cracking characteristics, the service life of the structures would be affected. In this paper, the effect of geometrical and material parameters, i.e., concrete cover thickness, reinforcing bar diameter, and concrete tensile strength, on the required pressure for concrete cover cracking due to corrosion has been investigated through detailed numerical simulations. ABAQUS finite element software is employed as a modeling platform where the concrete cracking is simulated by means of eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM). The accuracy of the numerical simulations is verified by comparing the numerical results with experimental data obtained from the literature. Using a previously proposed empirical equation and the numerical model, the time from corrosion initiation to the cover cracking is predicted and then compared to the respective experimental data. Finally, a parametric study is undertaken to determine the optimum ratio of the rebar diameter to the reinforcing bars spacing in order to avoid concrete cover delamination.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.791-797
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• 2011

This paper presents the test results of 12 direct tensile specimens to investigate the effect of cover thickness on the tension stiffening behavior in axially loaded reinforced concrete tensile members. Six concrete cover thickness ratios are selected as a main experimental parameter. The results showed that, as cover thickness became thinner, more extensive split cracking along the reinforcement occurred and transverse crack spacing became smaller, making the effective tensile stiffness of thin specimens at the stabilized cracking stage to be much smaller than that of thick specimens. This observation is not implemented in the current design provisions, in which the significant reduction of tension stiffening effect can be achieved by applying thinner cover thickness. Based on the present results, a modified tension stiffening factor is proposed to account for the effect of the cover thickness.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.86-89
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• 2003

It is recognized that reinforcement corrosion is the main distress behind the present concern regarding concrete durability. In this study, to confirm corrosion of reinforced concrete affected by thickness of cover, kinds of surface coating, measured electric potential, ratio of corrosion area, weight reduction, corrosion velocity of steel bar under environment of complex deterioration. The results showed that an increase in age also increases corrosion of steel bar. Ratio of corrosion area is largely related to ratio of weight reduction. as well, corrosion of steel bar by thickness of cover is superior to l0mm thick than 20mm thick. It showed that an increase in thickness of cover prevent steel bar from deteriorating. The results of this study showed that corrosion velocity was affected by thickness of cover, kinds of surface coating. data on the development of corrosion velocity made with none, organic B, organic A, inorganic B, and inorganic A is shown.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.1 s.85
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• pp.157-166
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• 2005

This article involves architecting prototype-fuzzy expert system for designing the nominal cover thickness by means of fuzzy inference for quantitatively representing the environment affecting factor to reinforced concrete in chloride-induced corrosion environment. In this work, nominal cover thickness to reinforcement in concrete was determined by the sum of minimum cover thickness and tolerance to that defined from skill level, constructability and the significance of member. Several variables defining the quality of concrete and environment affecting factor (EAF) including relative humidity, temperature, cyclic wet and dry, and the distance from coast were treated as fuzzy variables. To qualify EAF the environment conditions of cycle degree of wet-dry, relative humidity, distance from coast and temperature were used as input variables. To determine the nominal cover thickness a qualified EAF, concrete grade, and water-cement ratio were used. The membership functions of each fuzzy variable were generated from the engineering knowledge and intuition based on some references as well as some international codes of practice.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.58-66
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• 2022

In this study, to examine the effect of the transverse thermal expansion behavior of FRP reinforcing bars and concrete on the concrete cover thickness, based on 20℃, when the temperature changes from -70℃ to 80℃, the behavior of concrete was studied theoretically and numerically. Theoretical elastic analysis and nonlinear finite element analysis were performed on FRP reinforced concrete with different diameters and cover thicknesses of FRP reinforcement. As a result, at a negative temperature difference, concrete was compressed, and the theoretical strain result and the finite element result were similar, but at a positive temperature difference, tensile stress and further cracks occurred in the concrete, which was 1.2 to 1.4 times larger than the theoretical result. The ratio of the diameter of the FRP reinforcing bar to the thickness of the concrete cover (c/db) is closely related to the occurrence of cracks. Since the transverse thermal expansion coefficient of FRP reinforcing bars is three times greater than that of concrete, it is necessary to consider this in design.