Life Cycle Assessment

Empowering Cost Effective Maintenance:

Life Cycle Assessment of Concrete Structures
Chaitanya Raj Goyal

reation and destruction always go hand in hand and neither obtains a meaning without the other. They are connected via an interlude termed as 'maintenance', which ensures the achievement of desired output or fulfillment of the purpose of creation. It is often said that the finest creator next to God is a civil engineer and thus, his creations in the form of various structures, made from a variety of materials, for numerous purposes, are also subject to the same principle of maintenance! Infrastructure management is a critically important function of the industry and requires regular structural inspection and repair, for uninterrupted service. Reli-

able inspection and monitoring tools are therefore increasingly requested. A reliable prognosis of the condition and behavior of a structure is an important basis for an effective service life management. In order to determine the most economic point in time for repair measures to be taken along the life-time of a structure, knowledge on the deterioration process at exposed regions as well as detailed knowledge about the current condition of the whole structure is essential. It doesn't seem so tough on the front, does it? - Repairing cracked or defected concrete in a building, stadium, bridge, tunnel, dam, dock, runway or in any other infrastructural system is an obvious solu-

tion to keep the ownership costs down. But if the underlying damage is severe, it may be cheaper over the long term to tear everything down and rebuild. And this is why it becomes essentially important to learn when to repair and when to replace structural concrete to avoid lasting maintenance bills. What are life cycle costs and their benefits? A life cycle cost is equal to the construction cost plus the present value of future utility, maintenance, and replacement costs over the life of the building, and this analysis serves as a powerful tool used to make economic decisions for selection of building materials and design.

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Life Cycle Assessment

Assessment of overall life-cycle costs is a time-honored method to determine the best course of action with regard to structural concrete repairs. This analysis is the practice of accounting for all expenditures incurred over the lifetime of a particular structure in which the costs at any given time are discounted back to a fixed date, based on assumed rates of inflation and the time-value of money. By considering all aspects of the financial equation, an owner can achieve a fuller understanding of the options available during lifetime of the structure he is managing. Spending a little more today to fix an immediate problem correctly may considerably reduce the total cost of the structure over its lifespan, while, in some cases, replacement may prove to be the better option for an older structure with a few years left before the design life cycle of the structure ends. In all cases, it is prudent to bring in an engineer for a structural and life cycle evaluation. If the damage is not disruptive to the entire structure, it is often best to repair. Using this widely accepted method, it is also possible to compare the economics of different building alternatives that may have different cash flow factors but that provide a similar standard of service. Quite often, building designs with low initial cost for new construction will require higher maintenance and generate higher energy costs during the building's service life. Thus these buildings will have a higher life cycle cost. Conversely, durable designs often have a lower life cycle cost. Technical Goal One: Surveying and Evaluating the Deterioration Reinforced concrete has proven to be a durable material in comparison with steel or other structural materials. However, early deterioration of concrete due to aggressive environments or poor construction quality has also occurred in many reinforced concrete structures. When exposed to sufficiently aggressive environmental conditions, structural concrete members will eventually deteriorate and lose strength. Aggressive environmental conditions for structures can be described as cycles of freezing and thawing, and cycles of wetting and drying, with or without the presence of chloride. The time required for deterioration to occur

Safe and efficient maintenance of facilities

Design Main targets: Improved safety of aged facilities Lower maintenance cost
High-accuracy and efficient inspection / diagnosis methods are becoming strongly demanded.

Database Inspection

Countermeasures

Evaluation Diagnosis

Maintenance cycle for reinforced-concrete structures

varies considerably, depending on the severity of the exposure conditions and the characteristics of the structural concrete. In present day, the maintenance and renewal of aging infrastructure - built during the economic boom years, is becoming a major issue. Operating such aged facilities efficiently and safely requires the following maintenance cycle: design, inspection, diagnosis, evaluation, and implementation of countermeasures. To assure the safety of facilities, it is necessary to ascertain their state to a high degree of accuracy and detail. Moreover, among the steps in the maintenance cycle, the inspection and diagnosis processes are extremely important because identifying unseen conditions and the extent of damage is a key element in any LCC evaluation. At present, the usual way to inspect and diagnose facilities with high precision is to perform strength testing and material analysis on samples removed from an existing facility. This method, by

definition, consumes part of an existing facility, so it is difficult to apply it to the entire structure of an aged existing facility. Furthermore, in large-scale facilities like tunnels, the conditions often vary with the measurement position, so it is difficult to evaluate the condition of the whole facility from local measurements. On the other hand, non-destructive testing evaluates the condition of a structure without damaging it, so it has two advantages: it can be applied to the whole of a large-scale structure and can efficiently evaluate the degradation condition of that structure. Non destructive testing (NDT) is often used by engineers to obtain detailed structural information. NDT techniques include sounding, pulse testing, ground penetrating radar, in-situ load tests, etc. When more upfront condition detail is available, the engineer can prepare a more accurate remedial cost estimate and it is less likely the owner will face costly change

Fiber reinforced, non-shrink, general purpose cementitious repair micro-concrete which can be pumped or poured into restricted locations and attains rapid strength while imparting expansion characteristics

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Life Cycle Assessment

operating condition is a continuous challenge faced by owners and agencies. Fast rate of deterioration (if exposed to aggressive environments) and the high cost of repair, rehabilitation and replacement of concrete structures have become major issues. For selecting a treatment option to reduce the degradation of reinforced concrete structures, six key tasks have been developed and need to be conducted: Obtain general information on the component, and determine the present condition of the component. Quantify concrete condition in terms of an index. Predict future condition index. Estimate cost of treatment, and determine treatment's maximum possible service life on the basis of non-corrosion-related distress. Predict concrete condition index after treatment. Conduct life-cycle cost analysis to determine the optimum treatment and its timing.

Cracks are cleaned and repaired with Epoxy cartridge application

order surprises should he elect a repair option. A huge repair bill may tilt the balance towards replacement, as was the case with a major healthcare provider in USA, which recently demolished two large buildings, erected 30 years ago and is rebuilding them. The high cost of improving the structural elements of these facilities to meet the current advanced seismic standards was one of several factors that led management to select replacement. Thus, in some cases, replacement may prove to be a better option for an older structure with a few years left before its design life ends. While surveying and evaluating a structure - the first step is to quantify the concrete condition. Current research on this suggests that three quantities are indicators of current concrete condition: 1. Percent of bar-level concrete samples with chloride content higher than the corrosion threshold value. 2. Percent of concrete area that is delaminated, not including spalls. 3. Percent of concrete area that is spalled. Of these, when considering treatment options at a given time, spalling is the most important factor, delamination is second in importance, and chloride contamination at the level of reinforcing steel is the third most important. There are various repair and rehabilitation technologies and methods avail-

able in the industry and one of the very popular ones for aggressive deterioration is the Customized-Epoxy crack injection which, in the tidal zone is a proven solution for harsh and damp conditions, specifically to cope with the presence of water and salt while sustaining concrete integrity. Decision making process map and whole life cycle cost analysis Keeping concrete structures in a good

The above key tasks are identified as a decision making process map which assists decision maker to select an appropriate option for concrete structure rehabilitation. It is important to note here that life-cycle costs may not be the only factor to take into account when it comes

Ultrasonic Pulse Echo Testing in a Metro tunnel

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Civichem & Applications Pvt. Ltd

Life Cycle Assessment

A robotic system with NDT sensors

to the repair versus replace question. In some instances, there is no choice and either only a repair or only a replacement can be made owing to the circumstances, surroundings and the deterioration level. The Role of Technology in Future Infrastructural Management Structural damage is a stochastic process to a certain degree which progresses gradually. The earlier the damage can be monitored, the better a building can be managed in terms of maintenance and thus life cycle cost. Non-destructive testing (NDT) is still a very recent area of science in civil engineering dating back to the mid 1980s only. Challenges have to be seen with the size of the components to be monitored as well as some of the

fairly complex materials to be used such as reinforced concrete. Many of the monitoring approaches developed till now only operate successfully when fusing data obtained from different NDT techniques. Detailed monitoring however also requires a significant amount of work which may only be achieved through automation of the monitoring process. Starting from status quo in infrastructure management, different robotic techniques should be developed as a means to allow a paradigm shift in future infrastructure management. With the ongoing research, some examples may include scanners that monitor reinforced concrete structures on a multi parameter basis, micro aerial vehicles that scan complete buildings visually

Incentives to Recycle or Adaptively Reuse Existing Buildings Rather than Choosing Demolition are on the rise

allowing buildings to be reconstructed in 3D at very high resolution or pipeline inspection gauges which allow pipes to be inspected over hundreds of kilometers autonomously. A further option in monitoring civil infrastructure exists with the integration of sensing devices into structures. Another important trend: Governments worldwide passing regulations and offering monetary incentives to recycle or adaptively reuse existing buildings rather than choosing demolition. This is already happening widely in Chinese metro cities where owners are rewarded if they agree to convert an old hotel into condos or an aging office structure into a warehouse. Parking decks have been transformed into computer server farms in Beijing. This repurposing trend for existing buildings is a high growth element of the sustainable construction movement and is beginning to eclipse new construction in urban areas across the globe due to architectural preservation, environmental and waste disposal concerns. The Indian construction industry though, still has a long way to go in understanding and efficiently utilizing the LCC analysis to reduce the life cycle costs of structures and promote sustainable/ cost-effective development. It is thus very important that we start to realize the significance of this concept and in the future - whether you elect to repair or replace, do it right! - Use the correct materials and consult an engineer who can help you evaluate your options from a life-cycle perspective.

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