The Influence of Cracks on the Durability and Service Life of Reinforced Concrete Structures in relation to Chloride-Induced Corrosion: A Look from a Different Perspective

The service life of concrete structures can be significantly shortened when corrosion of steel reinforcement occurs, especially in a marine environment and in structures exposed to de-icing salts. The influence of load- or deformation-induced cracks on corrosion progress is an important issue which was studied in this research in relation to the...

Incorporating cracking of concrete on chloride ingress and service life modeling of concrete structures

Chloride induced reinforcement corrosion is the most common degradation mechanisms for reinforced concrete structures. The service life of concrete structures is normally predicted by estimating the rate of chloride ingress and the necessary time to initiate reinforcement corrosion. Normally, chloride ingress is modeled as a diffusive process in...

Changes in steel can be heard: The knock-on effect of flipping crystal lattices

Cracks in welds are a major problem in the steel processing industry. One of the causes is a change in the microstructure that occurs if steel cools too rapidly during the welding process. Researcher Stefan van Bohemen of the Applied Sciences faculty at TU Delft demonstrates how this change is accompanied by the production of high-frequency...

Rate effects on residual strength of flawed structures and materials

The literature is reviewed with respect to: - tests conducted to investigate crack re-initiation under dynamic load and arrest of a running crack - metallurgical sources of rate effects - available data for aerospace engineering materials - mechanical sources of rate effects, i.e. dynamic crack tip stresses and kinetic energy effects Conclusions...