An experimental and numerical study of the pattern of cracking of concrete due to steel reinforcement corrosion

•Experiments and simulations of concrete cracking due to rebar corrosion are presented.•Maple-leaf shaped crack patterns are seen in accelerated corrosion tests.•Crack visibility is enhanced by impregnation with fluorescent resin and UV light.•An expansive joint element working together with FE with embedded crack is presented.•The simulated crack patterns agree well with the experimental observations. In this work, cracking of concrete due to steel reinforcement corrosion is experimentally and numerically studied. The tests combined accelerated corrosion—to generate the cracks—with impregnation under vacuum with resin containing fluorescein—to enhance their visibility under ultraviolet light. In parallel, a model—called expansive joint element—was developed to simulate the expansion of the oxide and finite elements with an embedded adaptable cohesive crack were used to describe concrete cracking. The results show that a good agreement exists between the experimental and numerical crack patterns, which constitutes promising progress towards a comprehensive understanding of corrosion-induced cracking in reinforced concrete.