ABSTRACT
To investigate the effect of repeated loads on the flexural load carrying capacity of marine concrete beams suffering from chloride attack, a total of 10 concrete beams and 36 concrete cubes were designed and three damage mechanisms, including repeated loadings with a stress level of 0.4, chloride solution dry-wet cycles and their coupling action, were applied to them. Test results show the repeated loadings would cause the decrease in concrete strength and beam’s capacity. While these performances indicated a first significant rising and then falling process during the chloride dry-wet cycles. After exposure to above two conditions, the change rate in compressive strength was 1.5~1.8 times higher than that in flexural capacity. Based on the experimental data, a calculation model was proposed to predict the beam’s residual ultimate moment, indicating that the strength change rate within 40% can effectively reflect the flexural capacity degradation of marine concrete beams.
