Experimental and numerical studies on corrugated steel retrofitted damaged reinforced concrete arches

The corrugated steel (CS) reinforcement method has been adopted for strengthening dilapidated bridges and culverts owing to its advantages of convenient construction, good corrosion resistance, and high deformability. However, the current design method for corrugated steel retrofitted damaged reinforced concrete (CSRDRC) arches is excessively conservative as it only considers the bearing capacity of the CS, neglecting the contributions of the original reinforced concrete (RC) structure and the infill layer. This paper studied the behaviour of CSRDRC arches under three-point loading experimentally and numerically. The experimental results demonstrate that the bearing capacity and initial stiffness of the arches are significantly enhanced after CS reinforcement. The increase in damage degree of the original structure has a slight effect on the bearing capacity and initial stiffness, but an obvious adverse effect on the ductility of the CSRDRC arches. A finite element model (FEM) was developed and verified against test results and then utilized to conduct parametric analysis. Finally, a simplified formula was proposed for predicting the axial compressive bearing capacity of CSRDRC arches.