Experimental Study on Corrosion and Mechanical Behavior of Main Cable Wires Considering the Effect of Strain

To study the corrosion degradation of cable wires in a bridge’s life, this research work created an accelerated corrosion test device, which sought to identify an optimal constant strain level. An accelerated corrosion test was carried out and the corroded specimens were scanned using super depth 3D microscopy technology. Mass loss and minimum cross-sectional diameter was measured to understand the degradation characteristics of cable wires at variable strains and corrosion time. The variation of elastic modulus, yield load, and ultimate load of corroded wires, subjected to a tensile test, were analyzed. The experimental results illustrate that the average mass loss ratio of the corroded cable wires increases nonlinearly as corrosion time increases. The higher the stress level, the more serious the corrosion level. The minimum cross-sectional diameter has good correlation with corrosion time and stress level. The elastic modulus of wires does not change significantly with the increase of corrosion time. Yield load and ultimate load decreases with the increase of strain level, and the rates of decline under different strains are nonlinear.