INVESTIGATION OF A MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR PERIODIC ASSESSMENT OF CONCRETE STRUCTURES BASED ON INSPECTION AND VISUALIZATION

In order to assess old concrete structures and to evaluate possible distresses, determination of their current conditions is necessary. The aim of this assessment is to gather information on important distress, their causes and the severity and extent. This information is only obtained from a thorough and logical inspection, regular reports during service life of structures, and also design and construction details. Some of the concrete structures in industrial situations are subjected to various distresses due to different activities and lack of timely attention. These impairments cause incompatibility changes on mechanical, physical and chemical concrete properties and usually along with concrete disintegration. Nevertheless, it is realized that, in durability point of view, most concrete structures become deteriorated during their service life, where their severity and extent are affected by various factors. Unfortunately, lack of timely attention and determination of concrete distress causes, especially in places where periodic inspections have not been implemented at regular intervals, often cause concrete structures to become degraded and the estimation of these damages have shown a high cost of repair activities. Therefore, in order to achieve an adequate evaluation and actual cause of impairment and to provide the inspection, aintenance and repair strategies along with acceptable criteria in concrete structures, the present research work was carried out in four stages. It comprises evaluation methods, inspection management, criteria of repair materials and procedures selection, and finally provides a management system for inspection and visualization according to distress mechanisms. For the application of this research, the system results are used by a case study taken from the evaluation of concrete structures in the Mobarekeh Steel Complex.

Keywords:

concrete distress , inspection , maintenance strategies