Member-level probabilistic durability design of reinforced concrete structures in marine environment: Framework and general procedures

Abstract

In existing probabilistic durability design for marine reinforced concrete (RC) structures, the material-level deterioration behavior is modelled, and corrosion onset at a point on the rebar is taken as the limit state. However, the owners may more concern the risk of the structural member's surface damage or the potential maintenance demands. To bridge the gap, a member-level durability design method is developed in this paper. It treats the target reliability index as a function of member-level target performance, and incorporates the existing design method into the proposed framework. Its differences and relations with the existing material-level method are addressed. By improving the effective tools from existing studies, the general procedures of performing a member-level durability design are proposed. Taking the HZM project as the examples, member-level durability designs are performed for its beams, columns and immerged tube tunnels under various exposure conditions with various design targets being considered. Accuracy of the design outputs are checked by assessing the corresponding member-level performance and comparing it to the design targets. In addition, the proposed method is also validated with the in-situ data from an in-service high-pile RC wharf.