Times to cracking in reinforced mortar beams subjected to accelerated corrosion tests

This paper is devoted to the description of the effects of corrosion on mechanical behaviour of reinforced mortar beams. Corrosion tests have been performed through accelerated tests for two configurations of beams (rebar at the corner or in the middle). Critical times related to the development of cracking have been defined by using strain measurements, potential drop and visual observations. Our results showed that the crack pattern and the kinetic of cracking both depend upon the position of rebar. Furthermore, in order to predict the “times to cracking”, an analytical model (hollow cylinder subjected to inner pressure) was used with a set of experimental data related to the thickness and the displacement of the steel/mortar interface. Our results showed that these times depend upon the outer radius of the used hollow cylinder which is about equal to the length of the through crack.