- Title
- Investigating the effects of corrosion on 45-year-old prestressed concrete bridge beams
- Creator
- Pape, T. M.; Melchers, R. E.
- Relation
- IALCCE'08: First International Symposium on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering. Life-Cycle Civil Engineering (Lake Como, Italy 10-14 June, 2008) p. 421-426
- Relation
- http://www.ialcce08.org/Proceedings.html
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis Group
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- The Sorell Causeway Bridge spanned the Pittwater Esturay in Tasmania, Australia until 2002 when it was replaced after 45 years of service. Demolition occured due to the formation of longitudinal web cracks along some beams, appearing to follow the trajectory of the post-tensioning tendons, which were suspected to be caused by corrosion. Three beams of varying condition and location were salvaged and load tested to destruction. The beam in the worst condition achieved only 51% of its good-condition counterpart and failed catastrophically. It was confirmed that the longitudinal web cracking followed the tendon trajectory. Generally, corrosion was most severe in areas where concrete cracking was significant, however however the majority of rust staining stemmed from the conventional reinforcement. The most severely corroded post-tensioning strands had lost between 75–100% of their cross-section. Corrosion varied from general corrosion to elongated, irregular and deep pitting. Evidence of green rusts, chloride weeping and silvery-gold zones on steel surfaces were also observed.
- Subject
- Sorell Causeway Bridge; Pittwater Esturay, Tasmania; corrosion; longitudinal web cracking; concrete beams
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/802773
- Identifier
- uon:6198
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780415468572
- Language
- eng
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