ABSTRACT

A user-friendly expert system has been developed to evaluate primarily the durability of reinforced concrete structures, either in the design phase or during service life related to reinforcement corrosion. Besides the durability module, the ES has been provided with three other expert modules in order to support the user during the following activities: inspections, corrosion diagnosis and repair strategy (of concrete and reinforcement).

Corrosion induced by carbonation and chlorides penetration and caused by concrete degradation such as sulfate attack, freeze thaw cycles, alkali silica reaction are considered. The knowledge used for the Expert System built up is based both on open literature and international standards as well as on specific experiences and proprietary databases. The paper describes main features of the system, including the modeling of the knowledge, input data, the algorithms, the rules and the outputs for each module. rehabilitation.

INTRODUCTION

Degradation of concrete structures, related to the corrosion of the steel reinforcement, is becoming a worldwide problem. Buildings, located in cities and industrial areas, suffer of carbonation with wide. spalling and delaminations; concrete structures near the sea, such as jetties, wharves, marine terminals, buildings, and many others can be affected by chloride induced corrosion of steel reinforcement, most often associated with carbonation effects. Once corrosion has started, that is when steel has lost the passivity (initiation time), corrosion causes a series of different consequences - structural, functional, aesthetic, of safety - unless a repair method is adopted.

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