Experimental research on fatigue behavior of concrete under acid rain corrosive environment

Abstract

Concrete infrastructures such as high-speed railway bridges, road pavements, and airport runways in acid rain areas are severely affected by fatigue loading and environmental corrosion. To investigate the impact of acid rain corrosion on the fatigue resistance of concrete, 12 groups of concrete specimens were exposed to acid rain spray tests and then subjected to bending fatigue testing. These tests comparatively examined the impact of different stress levels and corrosion ages on the concrete's fatigue life, strain, and damage pattern. Additionally, the fatigue life reliability of the concrete was analyzed using the Weibull distribution theory and equations were developed to predict the fatigue life of the concrete under different probabilities of failure. The results indicate that both stress level and acid rain corrosion age significantly affect the ultimate strain and fatigue life of concrete. High stress levels combined with prolonged acid rain exposure severely degrade the fatigue performance of the concrete. The fatigue life of the concrete follows a Weibull distribution, and the P-S-N curves and fatigue life equations developed based on data from various failure probabilities show a high linear association with values larger than 0.9. These findings can serve as a reference for predicting the fatigue life of concrete in areas affected by acid rain.