The influence of rebar corrosion on the structural performance of RC beams has beenexperimentally studied by performing reversed cyclic loading tests. The corrosion of rebar wasartificially generated by electrolytic techniques before load application, at which electric current wascontrolled by its period to obtain the targeted degree of corrosion. The experimental results wereanalyzed focusing on the load carrying capacity, ductility, and failure process of the RC beams.
　Since the concrete cover to stirrups is generally smaller than that to main rebars, stirrups areexposed to severer corrosion environment. However, most of the past studies in this field focused onthe corrosion of main rebars and/or of both main bars and stirrups simultaneously. Taking thiscondition into consideration, the effects of corrosion of main rebars and stirrups were distinguishedon the structural performance of the RC beams.