Stochastic Modeling of Deterioration and Time-Variant Performance of Reinforced Concrete Structures under Joint Effects of Earthquakes, Corrosion, and ASR

Abstract

To assess the time-variant performance of RC structures, it is important to model the various deterioration processes as well as their interactions in addition to the associated uncertainties. Besides earthquakes and corrosion, RC structures can also be subject to deterioration due to alkali-silica reaction (ASR), which could impact the corrosion process. This paper develops a novel deterioration model for RC structures that captures the joint effects of deterioration due to earthquakes, corrosion, and ASR. The model is constructed using a novel stochastic formulation that captures the interaction of different deterioration mechanisms by modeling deterioration as both age/time and state dependent. The developed deterioration model is then used to estimate the time-variant seismic fragility and reliability of an example RC bridge. The impacts of interactions between deterioration processes on the time-variant performance are investigated in detail under different earthquake occurrence rates, different levels of ASR, and different levels of interactions. The results highlight the importance of incorporating different deterioration processes and their interactions when estimating the time-variant performances of RC structures.