Much
effort has been invested separately on degradation, repair and upgrading of
concrete
structures. However,
few holistic studies including laboratory testing
have been performed on the entire cycle during a structures life. Reinforced
concrete is the most widely used building material in the world. Normally the
life of concrete structures is very long. However, concrete structures possess
one drawback; at least in severe environments, the steel reinforcement may
corrode. The effects can clearly be seen when the steel reinforcement is
attacked by chlorides. The reduced steel cross-section area and loss of bond
strength between steel and concrete will lead to increased deformations,
cracking and premature ultimate load, thus affecting both the serviceability
limit state (SLS) and the ultimate limit state (ULS). Procedures to repair and
upgrade the damaged structure are used to increase the
structural performance.
They follow the structural member of time, a SHM (Structural Health
Monitoring)
approach is adapted to this project. By applying SHM to a degrading structure
it assures that it will keep up to current standards by continuous monitoring,
analysing, evaluation and eventually also retrofitting.