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Project

Multi-scale assessment of residual structural capacity of deteriorating reinforced concrete structures.

The extended lifetime of existing buildings and infrastructure puts pressure on structural integrity and safety. Deterioration of concrete structures due reinforcement corrosion is one of the major concerns. To support efficient and pro-active maintenance, and safe re-use and retrofitting of existing structures in reinforced concrete (RC), an inspection-based assessment tool will be developed within a multi-scale experimental and numerical framework, to estimate the residual structural capacity of deteriorated RC structures that are subjected to chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion. Focus is on the development of reliable inspection methods, links between recorded damage and structural performance, and an integrated data processing and result visualization protocol. In this project, these points are addressed: (i) at the material level, where advanced visualization techniques (acoustic emission (AE) and microCT) are combined to set up and calibrate mechanical models for material and interface degradation; (ii) at the component level, at which results from crack mapping and AE-based condition assessment are related to local and global corrosion damage and residual structural capacity of deteriorated RC beams. This approach allows taking into account spatial variability of corrosion damage, typically observed in on-site inspection; (iii) Developed techniques and models are integrated in a tool for inspection-based structural assessment. After benchmarking on literature data and experimental results, the assessment tool is valorized on two case studies.
Date:1 Oct 2017 →  30 Sep 2021
Keywords:reinforced concrete, degradation, inspection
Disciplines:Ceramic and glass materials, Materials science and engineering, Semiconductor materials, Other materials engineering