Concrete, Sustainability and Limit States

Abstract

Efficient sustainability management of concrete structures requires the use of tools which allow material, technological and construction variants to be quantified. The present contribution, apart from discussing the issue of sustainability of concrete structures, focuses on the quantification of concrete resistance to degradation. An indicator expressing quality, with regard to sustainability, is determined using information on concrete performance characteristics, service life and eco-costs, enabling the quantification and comparison of various cases. Cradle-to-gate system boundary and the full probability method are used. The aim is to propose a suitable methodology which can simplify decision-making about the design and choice of concrete mixes from a wider sustainability perspective, as an extensional and integrating approach to evaluating load-bearing capacity and durability. Two case studies of probabilistic sustainability quantification are shown using sustainability potential indicators for two different definitions of service life (due to carbonation of concrete and freeze/thaw effects), considering also the concrete performance’s and impact on the environment.

Concrete: Limit States and Sustainability

“…This combined indicator was recently presented in, e.g. Hrabová et al (2019), and Konečný et al (in revision). Indicator kSB is a normalized form of the Building Material Sustainability Potential (BMSP) defined previously by Müller (2013).…”

“…elements of social responsibility, and therefore SLS, ULS and L also fall into this category -usually being understood and utilized as basic safety and serviceability criteria as well. Details concerning this class of limit equations and their practical utilization have not yet been specified in the fib Model Code 2010 (2012) or anywhere else to the best knowledge of the authors; an overview of the equations and a short literature review can be found in Hrabová et al (2019).…”

Comparative Study of High-Performance Concrete Characteristics and Loading Test of Pretensioned Experimental Beams

“…Nevertheless, the expenses should be inspected not only with respect to the manufacturing cost but also in the context of the whole life span, which is, in the case of bridges, 100 years. Convincing quantification of all relevant expenses, together with environmental impact, i.e., life cycle analysis, is the objective of many research tasks [44,45]. Their application in the case of bridge beams is the object of future research.…”

Practical Aspects of Correlation Analysis of Compressive Strength from Destructive and Non-Destructive Methods in Different Directions

“…Concrete is one of the important construction materials that is widely used in building structures due to its availability, low cost, and workability [1,2]. Because concrete under load pressure can fail, determining its compressive strength plays a vital role in judging its quality.…”