Influence of different fatigue loads and coating thicknesses on service performance of RC beam specimens with epoxy-coated reinforcement

Epoxy-coated reinforcing bars are widely used to protect the corrosion of the reinforcing bars in the RC elements under their in-service environments and external loads. In most field surveys, it was reported that the corrosion resistance of the epoxy-coated reinforcing bars is typically better than the uncoated bars. However, from the experimental tests conducted in the labs, it was reported that, under the same loads, the RC elements with epoxy-coated reinforcing bars had wider cracks than the elements reinforced with the ordinary bars. Although this conclusion may be true considering the bond reduction of the reinforcing bar due to the epoxy coating, the maximum service loads used in the experimental research may be a main reason. To answer these two phenomena, service performance of 15 RC beam specimens with uncoated and epoxy-coated reinforcements under different fatigue loads was experimentally studied. Influences of different coating thicknesses of the reinforcing bars, the fatigue load range and load upper limit as well as fatigue load cycles on the mechanical performance of RC test specimens are discussed. It is concluded that, for the test specimens subjected to the comparatively lower load range and load upper limit, adverse effect on the service performance of test specimens with thicker epoxy-coated reinforcing bars is negligible. With the increments of the coating thickness and the in-service loading level, i.e., fatigue load range, load upper limit and fatigue cycles, the adverse factor resulting from the thicker coating becomes noticeable.