Effects of stirrup and inclined bar corrosion on shear behavior of RC beams

An experimental study is proposed to investigate the shear behavior of corroded reinforced concrete (RC) beams with stirrups and inclined bars. The proposed study aims to address the effects of corrosion in the two types of shear reinforcement on the shear capacity deterioration of RC beams with low shear span-to-effective depth ratio. The accelerated corrosion test is employed to obtain different corrosion levels in stirrups and inclined bars in fourteen RC beams. The corrosion-induced concrete cracking and section damage is discussed in detail. The shear behavior including load-deformation response, residual shear strength, diagonal cracking and failure mode is presented. The shear strength of beams is predicted by a modified ACI approach considering the corrosion loss of shear reinforcement and concrete section damage. It is observed that the slight corrosion loss less than 10% in stirrups and inclined bars has little effect on the degradation of shear behavior. The severe corrosion of stirrups and inclined bars, and the accompanied concrete section damage decreases the shear strength and stiffness significantly. Corrosion of stirrups and inclined bars does not change the shear compression failure mode of beams. Severe corrosion does reduce the number of cracks in beams and lead to early rupture of shear reinforcement.