However, in reality, corrosion rarely causes uniform expansion of the reinforcing steel. Therefore, it is possible that real pressure on the surrounding concrete acts in a different way (Ohtsu and Uddin, "Mechanisms of corrosion-induced cracks in concrete at meso- and macro-scales", Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol.6 , No. 3, 419-429, October 2008):
The effect of different scenarios on the crack patterns in our model is visible in the following snapshots (at 5000 steps- yellow for visibility):
(top to bottom- radial, horizontal and vertical loading scheme, respectively)It is clear that the loading condition makes a difference in the cracking behavior of the cover. Hope everyone is convinced! Enjoy the holidays!
