A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Civil Engineering

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2001

Corrosion of reinforcement is one of the major causes of degradation of performance of concrete structures in a severe environmental condition mainly due to neutralization of concrete or chloride attack. Particularly in earthquake prone region, it becomes necessary to evaluate the performance of these deteriorated structures under seismic action to ensure the safety of the structure. Therefore, to examine the dynamic behavior of reinforced concrete structures such as strength, stiffuess, ductility and energy absorption under both severe corrosive and seismic condition, an experimental study was carried out on sixteen reinforced concrete piers. All the specimens were having exactly same size though, axial load, design method and corrosion condition were different. The specimens were tested with identical loading cycles. The results show that the performances were seriously affected by corrosion of reinforcement and degradation rate was found to be merely depending on degree of corrosion Especially, rate of degradation of ductility and energy absorption with corrosion loss was much larger than the reduction of strength. Based on this experimental result, experimental equations were developed to explain the deterioration degree of strength, ductility and energy absorption of the pier with corrosion loss of reinforcement.