Experimental investigation on the cyclic performance of reinforced concrete piers with chloride-induced corrosion in marine environment

Coastal bridges in marine environments suffer from serious corrosion, resulting in the degradation of the seismic capacity of the structures during the long-term service period. This paper presents a cyclic experiment of coastal bridge piers considering the corrosion effects. Four test specimens, among which one is a sound structure and the others are structures with different levels of corrosion damage from accelerated corrosion, were used for the cyclic tests in this study. Using the measured force-displacement hysteretic responses, the effects of the corrosion damage on the seismic behavior of the specimens were investigated. The test results indicated that the seismic performance of the structure showed obvious degradation with the increase in the level of corrosion.