Strategy for sustainable durability prediction of structures

Abstract

Peculiarities of sustainable reliability predictions for load-carrying structures of buildings, construction and civil engineering works are discussed. The quantitative probabilistic parameters of the sustainable structural safety and durability of members and their Systems are formulated and applied. A new strategy for probability-based quality predictions of sustainable structures is presented. The sustainable safety prediction is meant for particular members (sections, connections) exposed to action effects caused not only by service, but also by site (execution) extreme loads and aggressive environmental actions. Contrary to this prediction, the sustainable durability issues for whole structural members (slabs, beams, columns, walls) äs austosystems representing their multi-criteria failure mode are considered. A realistic and rather easy way to reveal the sustainability of deteriorating structures through the technical service life äs the main durability päfameter is given. The methods of conventional resistance and transformed conditional probability design in practical calculations of sustainable reliability parameters of structures and works are presented. The functional working life of structural members and its effect on their sustainable durability prediction are discussed. It is recommended to calibrate the target reliability index of sustainable structures considering not only the consequences of failure of the members but also their functional working classes.