The role of durability monitoring in taking infrastructure maintenance to the level of industry 4.0

Abstract

AbstractOver the last years, significant advances were made with respect to sensors, data logging, data communication, and algorithm‐based data analysis. These developments have the potential to take structural health monitoring, especially structural corrosion health monitoring, to the next level. This contribution focuses on corrosion and durability monitoring of reinforced concrete structures. It is discussed how monitoring can play an important role in the diagnosis of the condition of a structure, as well as in predicting the future evolution of material's ageing and related deterioration processes. Measuring chemical and physical parameters in the concrete can serve as “early warning system” to detect potential durability issues ahead of time and optimize repair. Combined with modelling tools and taking into account the exposure conditions, such information can form the basis for predictive maintenance. In addition, the roles of monitoring as a method for checking the effectiveness of repair products in‐situ and to assess the performance of new concretes with low greenhouse gas emissions are discussed.