ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT This paper presents an improved reinforced concrete (RC) steel bar deterioration model that incorporates pitting corrosion and considers the change in after-cracking corrosion rate to assess the time-dependent seismic fragility of RC bridge substructures in marine environments. The proposed model is implemented to conduct a probabilistic seismic fragility analysis of a three-span continuous box girder bridge accounting for uncertainties in bridge geometry, material properties, ground motion and corrosion parameters. The results show that the effect of chloride-induced corrosion cannot be neglected when performing the seismic fragility analysis of RC bridge substructures in marine environments. Additionally, the calculated time-dependent fragility curves indicate that there is a nonlinear accelerated growth of RC column vulnerability during the service life of highway bridges, especially after twenty-five years of exposure to chlorides.
