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Remaining Service Life Assessment of River Bridges with Cracked Members

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Remaining Service Life Assessment of River Bridges with Cracked
Members
S. Özdemir & N. Topkara
SismoLab, Ankara, Turkey
A. Yakut, U. Akyüz, A. Caner
Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

ABSTRACT: Bridges on rivers can have major maintenance problems over the years. The piers of the river
bridges can crack due to adverse external effects such as floods, earthquakes or chemical spills to river bed.
The remaining service life assessment of the cracked bridge piers becomes very important on scheduling an
immediate rehabilitation or maintenance program. The focus of the paper is given to develop a computational
guideline to be used in remaining service life assessment of river bridge piers. While estimating the service life,
rate of corrosion of reinforcing steel is considered as the main reason. The corrosion rate depends on actual
crack width measured on piers and aggressiveness of environmental conditions surrounding the pier. In this
scope, a computational guideline is developed considering crack width, cement type, aggressiveness of
environment and concrete cover to assess the corrosion levels.

Extending the service life of the river bridges will

not only provide great advantages from the
1 INTRODUCTION viewpoints of economy and safety but also from
ethical, environmental and social aspects. Early
Reinforced concrete structures are typically preferred diagnosis of structural problems can extend the
over steel structures due to infrequent maintenance, service life of the river bridges followed by a well-
better fire protection and economically feasible performed maintenance program at certain intervals
designs within a defined service life. The reinforced (Yanmaz et al. 2007). Yet, maintenance costs could
concrete structures that are not protected from be significantly high as in the case pertaining to the
environmental effects can have many durability U.S.A. bridges. For instance, direct costs associated
problems such as corrosion of reinforcing steel, with bridge deck deterioration were reported to be in
which is a major one. River bridges are usually excess of $8 billion per year (FHWA, 2002).
exposed to harsh environmental conditions and The indirect costs can be associated with closure
sometimes very vulnerable in terms of durability. of bridges during maintenance operations with a high
Even when correctly designed, many of these volume of traffic. Maintenance operations could
structures existing for the last 30 to 50 years may not result in substantial economic loss to the surrounding
meet the serviceability requirements regarding area. For instance, the average value of travel time
durability. could be counted as an indirect cost (Table 1).
It has been known that the cracking of reinforced
concrete can accelerate the corrosion of the Table 1. Average European value of time for travel /
reinforcement. Corrosion emerges as the appearance 2011
at the outside surface of concrete with signs of Mode Type Definition Values
damage to the cover. The consequences do not affect per
only the functional aspects or the external condition hour(€)
Passenger Car Business/Person 32,9
but also the structural aspects regarding safety. The Transport Commuting/Private 9,4
static or dynamic load-bearing capacity is diminished Vacation 6,3
by the reduction of the cross sectional area of the
reinforcement due to corrosion. Furthermore, Train Business/Person 32,9
products of corrosion causes reduction of its adhesion Commuting/Private 10,0
to the concrete. The reduction in load carrying Vacation 5,0
Freight Car Light Goods 62,6
capacity may also result in a catastrophic collapses. Transport Heavy Goods 67,3
 In this study, service life concept of structures will
be computationally studied focusing on extending the
service life of bridges that computational methods can
be utilized in early diagnosis of the problems. Early
diagnosis results can be used to develop new
maintenance strategies to improve the service life of
river bridge piers.

2 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

Corrosion of uncoated conventional reinforcement

can occur due to aggressive environmental conditions Figure 1. Carbon steel corroded, became non-functional
such as humidity, chloride attack or carbonation.
These conditions can be named as severe or
aggressive environments attacking to initiate The inspection of bridge piers above the water
deterioration of reinforced concrete. The level indicate no major corrosion problem but some
environmental conditions can be categorized as mild, stains developed on the water splash zone of column
moderate or high per combination of the level of faces indicating that the inner reinforcement may
concentration of aggressive chemical substance, the started corroding (Figure 2a). The pictures taken by
presence of water and level of humidity. Aggressive the diver indicate that the corrosion problem is more
chemical substance could be chlorides, sulphates and severe as getting closer to the foundation level
acids. signing possible endangerment for structural stability
Marine structures, foundations lying on chemically (Figure 2b).
contaminated soils and motorway bridges on which
salt is used as an antifreeze in winter months are
examples of badly conditioned structures. Ones
exposed to aggressive environmental conditions are
at the risk of reduced lifetime due to corrosion. In this
study, level of environmental aggressiveness is
correlated to the specified environmental conditions
as presented in the Table 2:

Table 2. Environmental Conditions Effecting

Corrosion
Aggressiveness Environmental Conditions

Mild Not defined below Figure 2a. Above water level.

Moderate River bridges, randomly salted
highway bridges during winter
High Located close to salted water sources,
marine type structures

2.1 Corrosion Problems Observed in Bridges in

Turkey
Having insufficient concrete cover used at abutments
reside in river can be subjected to severe
reinforcement corrosion (Figure 1). In this situation,
expected lifetime of the bridge is significantly
diminished.
Figure 2b. Photo taken by the diver from the columns under
water.

In case of stability loss, the bridge may not keep

its integrity in the case of a flood as shown in Figure
3. It has been known that more than half of the bridge
failure are related to hydraulic effects that initiated by
stability loss. In this example case of 2012, the loss is
not only structure but also life of travellers. For the
sections of superstructure, the corrosion initiated on
main reinforcement may result in structural load
bearing capacity reduction stemming from loss of
area of steel reinforcement due to corrosive
deterioration. The main reinforcement of the beams
started corroding as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 3. Loss of piers and superstructure after a flood.
Figure 4. Fractures on the beam main reinforcement.
Among bridges in Turkey, crack width
measurements were observed to be exceeding the
critical values as shown in Figure 5. Crack width
above critical values may result in triggered corrosion
process when aggressive conditions come into the
picture. For decks and substructures reside in river,
the allowable crack width is limited to 0,2 mm in
bridge design specifications representing moderate
aggressiveness.
Figure 5. Measured crack width allowing water infiltration.
3 COMPUTATIONAL GUIDELINE
Service life predictions typically focus on global
conditions of the bridge as well as the local condition
of critical load carrying elements that may even result
in total collapse of the bridge. The rapid deterioration
of conventional rebar may significantly reduce
service life of bridge or its components.
In this study, a computational guideline addressing
this problem has been developed mainly focusing on
chloride induced corrosion of reinforced concrete
structures.
The typical input of the computational guideline
are concrete cover, type of cement, crack width and
environmental conditions. The output is the
remaining lifetime in years in case of normal
deterioration and deterioration due to corrosion. For
instance, in case of an old bridge, the remaining
service life is taken as minimum of a) expected life
minus current age or b) computed service life using
the proposed computational method. The
methodology of this lifetime estimation will be
explained below.
In Turkey, visual inspection of bridges of different
age groups indicated that the expected service life of
bridges under natural deterioration is around 80 years
(Caner et al. 2008). If a rapid corrosion is not
observed, the expected service life of bridge is
assumed to be 80 years in the proposed analytical
method.
The analytical model has been developed based on
the investigation of studies of a variety of researchers
(Kwon et al. 2009; Chun-hua et al. 2014; Guoping et
al. 2011; Akgül & Frangapol, 2005; Phurkhao &
Kassir, 2005; Byung et al. 2007, Mullard & Stewart,
2012; Tikalsky, 2004). The service life predictions
including parameters like concrete cover, crack
width, environmental conditions and type of cement
are based on one-dimensional chloride diffusion
models by Fick’s second law.
 Chloride amount has been defined by the tR is the time when diffusion coefficient is assumed
environmental conditions dictating the to be constant and it is generally assumed as 30 years
aggressiveness of the bridge site. The diffusion in (Thomas & Bentz, 2002).
years has been computed from the equation below: If the section is cracked, a cracking function is also
included by Kwon et al. 2009 as :
𝜕𝐶 𝜕2 𝐶 (1)
= 𝐷(𝑡) 𝜕𝑥 2
𝜕𝑡 𝐷(𝑤) = 𝑓(𝑤). 𝐷𝑚 (9)
C(kg/m3) is chloride content at the depth of f(w) = (31,61𝑤 2 + 4,73𝑤 + 1)
distance x (meters) from surface for the period t (𝑤 ≥ 0,1 𝑚𝑚, 𝑅2 = 0,984)
(10)
(years). t is the duration of time measured from the
start of aggressiveness to year of interest. D(t) is Then, C(x,t) evaluation becomes in the following
diffusion coefficient at time t and generally defined form: (Kwon et al. 2009)
by Tang & Joost, 2007; Poulsen, 1993; Thomas &
Bentz, 2002; Thomas & Bamforth,1999 as:
𝑥
𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑓 𝑚 𝐶(𝑥, 𝑡) = 𝐶𝑠 [1 − 𝑒𝑟𝑓 ( )]
𝐷(𝑡) = 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑓 ∗( )
(2) 2√𝐷𝑚 ∗ 𝑓(𝑤) ∗ 𝑡 (11)
𝑡

Note that Dref is diffusion coefficient at reference If the above value reaches the critical threshold to
time tref and tref is taken as 1 year. m is a constant
have severe corrosion problems at a certain period of
depending on cement type. The time of accumulation time tn (years), the remaining life of the component or
of chloride at a certain distance below the surface is structure has been computed from:
computed based on an erf function (Poulsen, 1993).
t 𝑅𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 = t 𝑛 − t age of the structure (12)
By introducing 𝑑𝐼 = 𝐷(𝜏)𝑑𝜏 (Poulsen, 1993):
𝑡
(3)
𝐼(𝑡) = ∫ 𝐷(𝜏)𝑑𝜏 Note that alkali-silica reaction (ASR) and load-
0
induced cracks are not included in the developed
𝜕𝐶 𝜕 2 𝐶 (4) model.
= 2
𝜕𝐼 𝜕𝑥
3.1 Calibration of Computational Method
𝑥 (5)
𝐶(𝑥, 𝑡) = 𝐶𝑠 [1 − 𝑒𝑟𝑓 ( )] Several researchers has proposed different values
2√𝐷𝑚 ∗ 𝑡
for parameters to be used in similar analytical models.
These parameters are either based on long-time
observations or accelerated tests of concrete under
C(x,t) is chloride content at a distance x from the
different aggressiveness. In this study, the equations
surface in time t.
above have been used to develop a unique
Cs is surface content of chloride (kg/m3).
computational tool for early diagnosis of reduction in
erf is the error function:
expected lifetime due to corrosion. The most difficult
𝑥
part of developing the computational tool is to decide
2 2 (6) on the threshold values. Relationship between
erf(𝑥) = ∫ 𝑒 −𝑡 𝑑𝑡
√𝜋 0 aggressiveness and surface chloride content and also
reference diffusion value at accepted reference time
need to be identified in the analysis. Unless a valid
and Dm is averaged diffusion coefficient to the time experimental data is provided, for mild, moderate and
t (Poulsen, 1993): high aggressiveness surface chloride content can be
taken as 2, 4,5 and 12 kg/m3 respectively. Reference
1 𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑓 𝑚 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑓 𝑚 diffusion is another complex parameter depending on
𝐷𝑚 = ∫ 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑓 ( ) 𝑑𝜏 = ( )
𝑡 0 𝜏 1−𝑚 𝑡 the aggressiveness and cement type. For instance,
(𝑡 < 𝑡𝑅 ) (7) reference values for PCC1 type of cement can be
taken as 30 mm2/year (mild aggressiveness), 80
mm2/year (moderate aggressiveness) and 600
𝑡𝑅 𝑚 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑓 𝑚 mm2/year (high aggressiveness) unless a valid data is
𝐷𝑚 = 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑓 [1 + ( )] ( )
𝑡 1−𝑚 𝑡𝑅 (8) available. These starting values have been modified
(𝑡 ≥ 𝑡𝑅 ) using above equations from one case to other one by
inclusion of other parameters such as crack widths
and cement type.
 The results of the method have been checked
against the requirements of Turkish Reinforced
Concrete Design Code and AASHTO LRFD (2012)
to verify the critical crack width limit allowances for
structures at different environmental conditions. For
instance, at moderate aggressiveness, if the crack
width exceeds 0,2 mm, the structures have
determined to have less service life compared to
normally deteriorated structures as shown in Figure 6.
90
80
70
Service life (years)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0 50 mm
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Crack width (mm)
Figure 6. Expected service life versus crack width at moderate
aggressiveness and for PCC1.
The computational method with its parameters are
observed to be in good correlation with code
requirements on serviceability. For instance, bridge
specifications allow for a member having its concrete
cover more than 63 mm to have a maximum crack
width of 0,2 mm. The analytical results also verified
this requirement and the service life of the member
reduces if less concrete cover is used or 0,2 mm crack
width is exceeded. However, less concrete cover can
only be used with stainless steel reinforcement since
these type of steel is not expected to corrode in the
lifetime of the bridge.
4 CONCLUSION
The following conclusions can be gathered from
this research:
- The proposed computational method can be used
to assess the remaining service life of the bridges
by selecting the proper environmental
aggressiveness and condition of concrete.
- The parameters used in the analysis has been
verified against the requirements of reinforced
concrete design specifications.
- Unless a valid experimental data is available,
surface chloride content can be taken as 2 kg/m3
for mild aggressiveness; 4,5 kg/m3 for moderate
aggressiveness and 12 kg/m3 for high
aggressiveness.
- For PCC1 type of cement, reference values for
diffusion can be considered as 30 mm2/year in
mild aggressiveness; 80 mm2/year in moderate
aggressiveness and 600 mm2/year in high
aggressiveness.
- In new designs or in rehabilitation projects, use of
stainless steel can be preferred over the
unprotected conventional reinforcement especially
at bridges at high aggressive environments or with
high volume of traffic.
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