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Durability and Intelligent Evaluation of Concrete Structures

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Civil Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2025) | Viewed by 7044

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, China
Interests: structural reinforcement and renovation; durability of concrete structures; intelligent detection of hidden defects
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, China
Interests: structural reinforcement and renovation; prefabricated structures
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Concrete structures are widely applied to buildings and infrastructures in both developed and developing countries. Although concrete is generally considered a durable construction material, there is still a great durability concern when concrete structures are subjected to harsh environments or fatigue loading. A great number of concrete structures in service need to be evaluated and repaired to ensure their safety and the maintenance of these existing concrete structures, which consumes significant portions of the national wealth of countries and makes conventional human-based inverventions inappropriate. Moreover, structural damages or defects are usually hidden and cannot be visualized from their appearance, and thus, it is difficult to evalute the performance of concrete structures and to propose a proper maintenance scheme. To solve these problems, intelligent evaluation methods need to be investigated so that proper maintenance schemes can be developed and the durability of the concrete structures before and after strengthening can be predicted.

Prof. Dr. Yi Wang
Prof. Dr. Yongzhi Gong
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • durability of concrete structures
  • cracking of concrete
  • intelligent evaluation
  • flexural behavior
  • strengthening
  • maintenance

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 7206 KiB  
Article
Research on the Corrosion Inhibition Effect of Xanthium sibiricum on Reinforced Steel and the Prediction of Reinforced Concrete Performance under a Stray Current and Chloride Environment
by Qi Liu, Min Yuan, Jiaming Zhang and Sheng Qiang
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(16), 6986; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14166986 - 9 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1127
Abstract
This study examined a newly developed environmentally friendly plant-based corrosion inhibitor (Xanthium sibiricum). The natural potential method, linear polarization method, steel weight loss method, and corrosion area method were employed to verify the inhibitor’s effectiveness in chloride-containing concrete. The results indicated [...] Read more.
This study examined a newly developed environmentally friendly plant-based corrosion inhibitor (Xanthium sibiricum). The natural potential method, linear polarization method, steel weight loss method, and corrosion area method were employed to verify the inhibitor’s effectiveness in chloride-containing concrete. The results indicated that Xanthium sibiricum elevated the natural potential of reinforcing steel in concrete, increased its self-corrosion potential, and reduced the self-corrosion current. After three months of curing, the corrosion rate of steel without an inhibitor was approximately 47.5% faster than the experimental group, with the steel loss rate about 40% more severe. The effectiveness of the inhibitor was influenced by increased chloride content in concrete. A two-dimensional multiphase ion transport model of reinforced concrete with realistic aggregate distribution was established using the finite element method (FEM). This model simulated chloride ion transport under typical civil engineering service environments—the coupled effects of a stray current and chloride environment. A predictive formula for the residual compressive strength of reinforced concrete was derived after corrosion under various voltages and chloride ion concentrations for a specific duration. In conjunction with a pump station project operating in a similar environment, the optimal dosage of the Xanthium sibiricum inhibitor for practical engineering was determined to be 2 g/L. At this dosage, the strength of reinforced concrete specimens increased by approximately 31.1%. Finally, a predictive formula for the residual compressive strength of reinforced concrete with an added inhibitor was obtained after corrosion under various voltages and chloride ion concentrations for a specific duration. The conclusions can enhance the durability and safety of concrete structures in similar projects, showing promising application prospects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Durability and Intelligent Evaluation of Concrete Structures)
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17 pages, 9697 KiB  
Article
Experiment on the Tensile Strength of Concrete Joint Surface at Early Ages
by Jingwei Shao, Min Yuan, Yu Chen, Minghao Weng, Fusheng Wang and Sheng Qiang
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(16), 6968; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14166968 - 8 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1223
Abstract
Concrete is widely used in large-scale hydraulic structures, which often need to undergo multiple pouring operations due to construction demands, temperature-induced shrinkage phenomena, and structural reinforcement and repair, which in turn creates the bonding surface of old and new concrete. Therefore, it is [...] Read more.
Concrete is widely used in large-scale hydraulic structures, which often need to undergo multiple pouring operations due to construction demands, temperature-induced shrinkage phenomena, and structural reinforcement and repair, which in turn creates the bonding surface of old and new concrete. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the strength of the bond between old and new concrete. We designed and completed a split tension test to investigate the evolution of the tensile strength of concrete joint surfaces with age at early ages. The test groups included three sets of matured concrete aged 3 days, 5 days, and 10 days, respectively. Within each group, multiple test specimens were prepared with different ages of the interface, ranging from 1 day to 15 days. The test utilized ready-mixed concrete materials from a commercial batching plant. To ensure uniform and standard roughness of the interface between new and matured concrete, a method employing non-destructive surface roughening tapes was employed. During the test, each specimen was subjected to tensile failure at its corresponding age. The maximum load applied by the testing machine at the point of tensile failure was recorded for each age group. Based on the fundamental principles of material mechanics and relevant formulas, the tensile strength of the interface at different ages was determined for each test group. The obtained data were then used to fit a curve representing the relationship between the early-age tensile strength of concrete and its age, using MATLAB R2020b software. The results show that there is a small increase in the tensile strength of the bonding surface as the age of the old test blocks is increased. This experiment revealed the changing pattern of early-age tensile strength of concrete at the interface with age, providing a basis for accurately simulating the mechanical properties of the interface during numerical simulations. Then, based on the existing temperature-controlled simulation program, a simplified simulation and calculation method of concrete cracking is proposed to make it possible to determine the tensile cracking (vertical cracking) when the stress exceeds the standard. The validity is verified by simulation calculations of a simplified model, using the tensile strength curves obtained from the tests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Durability and Intelligent Evaluation of Concrete Structures)
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18 pages, 1974 KiB  
Article
Bond Strength Evaluation of FRP–Concrete Interfaces Affected by Hygrothermal and Salt Attack Using Improved Meta-Learning Neural Network
by Yi Wang, Ning Ye, Siyuan Liu, Zhengqin Zhang, Yihan Hu, Anni Wei and Haoyu Wang
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(13), 5474; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14135474 - 24 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1362
Abstract
Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates are popular in the strengthening of concrete structures, but the durability of the strengthened structures is of great concern. Due to the susceptibility of the epoxy resin used for bonding and the deterioration of materials, the bond performance of [...] Read more.
Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates are popular in the strengthening of concrete structures, but the durability of the strengthened structures is of great concern. Due to the susceptibility of the epoxy resin used for bonding and the deterioration of materials, the bond performance of the FRP–concrete interface could be degraded due to environmental exposure. This paper aimed to establish a data-driven method for bond strength prediction using existing test results. Therefore, a method composed of a Back Prorogation Net (BPNN) and Meta-learning Net was proposed, which can be used to solve the implicit regression problems in few-shot learning and can obtain the deteriorated bond strength and the impact weight of each parameter. First, the pretraining database Meta1, a database of material strength degradation, was established from the existing results and used in the meta-learning network. Then, the database Meta2 was built and used in the meta-learning network for model fine-tuning. Finally, combining all prior knowledge, not only the degradation of the FRP–concrete bond’s strength was predicted, but the respective weights of the environment parameters were also obtained. This method can accurately predict the degradation of the bond performance of FRP–concrete interfaces in complex environments, thus facilitating the further assessment of the remaining service life of FRP-reinforced structures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Durability and Intelligent Evaluation of Concrete Structures)
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12 pages, 1834 KiB  
Article
Water Impermeability of Self-Compacting Fly-Ash-Containing Concrete
by Leonid Dvorkin, Oleh Bordiuzhenko, Dariusz Mierzwiński, Tomasz Tracz and Mateusz Sitarz
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(13), 5373; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14135373 - 21 Jun 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 948
Abstract
The impermeability of self-compacting fly-ash-containing concrete at different ash contents and specific surface areas of ash is studied. The experimental and statistical dependences of the water separation of concrete mixtures, as well as the water impermeability and compressive strength of self-compacting concrete, depending [...] Read more.
The impermeability of self-compacting fly-ash-containing concrete at different ash contents and specific surface areas of ash is studied. The experimental and statistical dependences of the water separation of concrete mixtures, as well as the water impermeability and compressive strength of self-compacting concrete, depending on the composition factors, were obtained. A correlation between concrete strength and its water impermeability has been determined, which allows predicting the latter with sufficient accuracy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Durability and Intelligent Evaluation of Concrete Structures)
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18 pages, 7247 KiB  
Article
Experimental Investigation of Compressive Concrete with Different Immersion Times and Its Stochastic Damage Model
by Jing Wang, Zhi Shan and Jiawei Kang
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(2), 739; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14020739 - 15 Jan 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1113
Abstract
Continuous large amounts of precipitation can lead to a rapid increase in the water content of concrete in village building foundations, which can adversely affect the mechanical properties, such as the compressive strength of concrete. There are few experimental studies on the compressive [...] Read more.
Continuous large amounts of precipitation can lead to a rapid increase in the water content of concrete in village building foundations, which can adversely affect the mechanical properties, such as the compressive strength of concrete. There are few experimental studies on the compressive stochastic mechanical properties of concrete in the wet state after considering different soaking times (different water contents and saturations), but there is no corresponding stochastic damage principal structure model. In this study, the mechanical properties of concrete under different immersion times were tested to obtain the mechanical properties of the concrete degradation law, and the random damage intrinsic model of wet concrete was established. The results of this paper were compared with the classical test results from the literature to verify the validity of the model. The results show that the proposed stochastic damage model is able to consider both the effects of the saturation and the damage behavior of wet concrete under compression, which is beneficial to the structural design and maintenance protection of village buildings in areas with abundant precipitation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Durability and Intelligent Evaluation of Concrete Structures)
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