Short Term Scienti c Mission, COST ACTION TU-0601The deterioration of existing structures has been a growing concern in the last decade. Signi cant attention has been paid to the deterioration of bridges, since signi cant costs in repair and replacement are expected in the next decades.
At the same time structural robustness seems to be an emergent concept related to the structural response to damage. At the present time, robustness is not well de ned and much controversy still remains around this subject.
This report intends to be a contribution to the de nition of structural robustness
especially in the analysis of reinforced concrete structures subjected to corrosion.
To achieve this, rst of all, several proposed robustness de nitions and indicators
and misunderstood concepts will be analyzed and compared. From this point and regarding a concept that could be applied to most type of structures and damage scenarios, a robustness de nition is proposed.
To illustrate the proposed concept, some example of corroded reinforced concrete
structures will be analyzed using nonlinear analysis numerical methods based on a
continuum strong discontinuities approach and isotropic damage models for concrete.
Finally the robustness of the presented examples will be assessed and compared
