RISK ASSESSMENT OF CONCRETE SPALLING/ FALLING FOR REINFORCED CONCRETE WALLS BASED ON VISUAL INSPECTION

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the behaviors of corrosion-induced concrete spalling/falling from fair-faced RC walls and to propose risk assessment methodology for them based on visual inspection. Accelerated corrosion tests show that detectable concrete spalling/falling occurs when cover depth is under 30mm and that rapid increase of concrete spalling/falling follows increase of surface cracking. We propose a framework of criteria for detecting the symptom of the rapid increase, where deterioration degree of inspected walls is divided into 3 stages based on crack index I_c . The criteria for I_c is determined by average cover depth of the walls.