Damage Assessment in Reinforced Concrete Structures

Abstract

Abstract

Reinforced concrete structures are subjected to a pattern of loading in addition to deterioration with age during their service life, which lead to damage of the structure. Damage assessment is an integral part of structural health monitoring (SHM) which aims to detect, locate and quantify the damage as well as predict the remaining service ability of the structure. Damage assessment technique can be classified into either global or local methods. Most currently used local techniques such as visual, acoustic, magnetic fields, eddy currents are effective but require the vicinity of damage to be known and readily assessable; whereas, the global methods, quantify the healthiness of the structure by examining its response parameters. Damage indices (DI) method is formulated based on response parameter of the structure that is obtained through analytical evaluation of structural response. The structural response parameters are: ductility ratio, energy absorption or dissipation, relative velocity, absolute acceleration, etc. The damage index normalizes the damage of a member on a scale of 0 to 1; where 0 represents undamaged state and 1 represents collapsed state of the member. These values have great importance in taking decision related to repair and retrofit of the structure. This paper analyses the correlation between the damage states obtained from a popular damage index and a program DAMAN developed by author using Visual Basic.

Keywords: Reinforced concrete, damage assessment, damage indices, response parameters, damage states