© RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

Abstract

Protection of existing building façades

– preliminary study

General concepts related to explosive loading and associated effects on buildings have been discussed. Requirements pertaining to the explosive and vehicle impact resistance of various building components were also elaborated along with the mention of relevant safety measures. Assessing the explosive resistance of existing buildings, with a focus on facades, was discussed in combination with design requirements and potential strength-ening approaches. Relevant literature covering the developments of this field was re-ferred to throughout the report.

It was suggested that a future quality assurance method be devised with the title of

"By-ggaS – Method for quality assurance of safe buildings". ByggaS is a method of working with safety issues related to the entire construction process. This encompasses quality assurance requirements (phased), planning and production. With the help of quality management routines and checklists, this method ensures that quality is met in each process through continuous documenting, communicating, checking and verifying the work. Overall, ByggaS allows for an increased quality and safety of the building to be delivered. It facilitates the work of individual construction projects and provides a more efficient process by offering the project participants a complete working method with associated tools/templates.

The Swedish Fortifications Agency

’s (FORTV) property stock consists of numerous concrete structures built both above and below rock. Some of these structures have experienced cracking overtime which, in turn, can lead to subsequent problems such as reinforcement corrosion and deterioration of structural performance. Due to the fact that in many cases there are building requirements related to protection against forced entry and weapon attacks, it is of great importance for FORTV to gain an understanding of how cracks are developed, the significance of the crack development, how do cracks affect the performance, as well as how cracks can be remediated. A similar project, with a focus on so-called access protection, has earlier been managed by FORTV. During the project, it was ascertained that there is inadequate knowledge pertaining to crack repair.

The goals of this project were the following:

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• Suggest a method or a tool to evaluate the extent of cracking in concrete structures which are included in protective facilities.
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• Describe which parameters can initiate cracking.
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• Describe repair methods to reinstate the functionality of concrete structures.

Cracking naturally takes place during the normal use of a concrete structure without influencing

the structure’s functionality given that it is designed correctly. However, there are other mechanisms which can initialize cracking in concrete structures. These mechanisms take place during various time periods (hardening, after hardening and

during the service life). Three crack groups have been identified accordingly: a) cracks due to poor workmanship, b) cracks due to chemical deterioration mechanisms and c) loading cracks.

Damage identification and a condition assessment can be conducted in different stages to determine the extent of cracking. It is firstly recommended to review the existing documentation coupled to the structure, followed by a preliminary inspection (visual), additional non-destructive testing and lastly destructive testing. Repairs are selected according to the source of the damage, it is to say concrete defects or corroded reinforcement. In addition, the functionality requirements for the structure shall be evaluated and the selected methods shall be assessed according to e.g. lifespan and cost.

Adaptive facades are increasingly used in modern buildings, where they can take the form of complex systems and manifest their adaptivity in several ways. Adaptive envelopes must meet the requirements defined by structural considerations, which include structural safety, serviceability, durability, robustness and fire safety. For these novel skins, based on innovative design solutions, experimentation at the component and / or assembly level is required to prove that these requirements are fulfilled. The definition of appropriate metrics is hence also recommended. A more complex combination of material-related, kinematic, geometrical and mechanical aspects should in fact be properly taken into account, compared to traditional, static facades. Accordingly, specific experimental methods and regulations are required for these novel skins. As an outcome of the European COST Action TU1403 ‘Adaptive facades network’ - ‘Structural’ Task Group, this paper collects some recent examples and design concepts of adaptive systems, specifically including a new classification proposal and the definition of some possible metrics for their structural performance assessment. The aim is to provide a robust background and detailed state-of-the-art information for these novel structural systems, towards the development of standardised and reliable procedures for their mechanical and thermo-physical characterisation.

Given their intrinsic features, adaptive facades are required to satisfy rigid structural performances, in addition to typical insulation, thermal and energy requirements. These include a minimum of safety and serviceability levels under ordinary design loads, durability, robustness, fire resistance, capacity to sustain severe seismic events or other natural hazards, etc. The overall design process of adaptive facades may include further challenges and uncertainties especially in the case of complex assemblies, where multiple combinations of material-related phenomena, kinematic effects, geometrical and mechanical characteristics could take place. In this context, experimental testing at the component and/or at the full-scale assembly level has a fundamental role, to prove that all the expected performance parameters are properly fulfilled. Several standards and guideline documents are available in the literature, and provide recommendations and procedures in support of conventional testing approaches for the certification and performance assessment of facades. These documents, however, are specifically focused on ordinary, static envelopes, and no provisions are given for the experimental testing of dynamic, adaptive skins. In this regard, it is hence expected that a minimum of conventional experimental procedures may be directly extended from static to dynamic facades. However, the validity of standardized procedures for adaptive skins is still an open issue. Novel and specific experimental approaches are then necessarily required, to assess the structural characteristics of adaptive facades, depending on their properties and on the design detailing. In this paper, existing fundamental standards for testing traditional facades are first recalled and commented. Special care is spent for the validity and reliability of conventional testing methods for innovative, adaptive envelopes, including a discussion on selected experimental methods for facade components and systems. Non-conventional testing procedures which may be useful for adaptive skins are then also discussed in the paper, as resulting from the research efforts of the European COST Action TU1403 ‘Adaptive facades network’ - ‘Structural’ Task Group.

As a part of the SESBE (Smart Elements for Sustainable Building Envelopes) project, non-load bearing sandwich elements were developed with Textile Reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete (TRRPC) for outer and inner facings, Foam Concrete (FC) for the insulating core and Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) continuous connectors. The structural performance of the developed elements was verified at various levels by means of a thorough experimental program coupled with numerical analysis. Experiments were conducted on individual materials (i.e., tensile and compressive tests), composites (i.e., uniaxial tensile, flexural and pull-out tests), as well as components (i.e., local anchorage failure, shear, flexural and wind loading tests). The experimentally yielded material properties were used as input for the developed models to verify the findings of various component tests and to allow for further material development. In this paper, the component tests related to local anchorage failure and wind loading are presented and coupled to a structural model of the sandwich element. The validated structural model provided a greater understanding of the physical mechanisms governing the element's structural behavior and its structural performance under various dead and wind load cases. Lastly, the performance of the sandwich elements, in terms of composite action, was shown to be greatly correlated to the properties of the GFRP connectors, such as stiffness and strength

Pull-out mechanisms for different common steel fibers were investigatedusing adapted pull-out tests performed in-situ in an x-ray micro tomograph(µXRT). High-resolution volume images from the µXRT scans enable clearvisualization of aggregates, pores, the fiber and the fiber-matrix interface.Furthermore, the natural density speckle pattern from aggregate distributionand pores was found suitable for Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) analysis.From the DVC results it was possible to visualize and quantify the straindistribution in the matrix around the fiber at the different load levels up tofinal failure, being marked by either pull-out or fiber rupture. This studydemonstrates that strain measurements within the concrete matrix can beobtained successfully using µXRT imaging and DVC analysis, which leads to anincreased understanding of the interaction mechanisms in fibre reinforcedconcrete under mechanical loading.

Prefabricated and non-load bearing sandwich façade elements were developed using Textile Reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete (TRRPC) along with low density Foamed Concrete (FC) and Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) continuous connecting devices. Four-point bending tests were performed on large-scale TRRPC sandwich element beams to characterize the structural performance, which included the flexural capacity, level of composite action, resulting deformation, crack propagation and failure mechanisms. Optical measurements based on Digital Image Correlation (DIC) were taken simultaneously to enable a detailed analysis of the underlying composite action. The structural behavior of the developed elements was found to be highly dependent on the stiffness and strength of the connectors to ensure composite action between the two TRRPC panels.

Within the EC funded project smart elements for sustainable building envelopes, carbon textile reinforcement was incorporated into reactive powder concrete, namely textile reinforced reactive powder concrete (TRRPC), to additionally improve the post-cracking behaviour of the cementitious matrix. This high-performance composite material was included as outer and inner façade panels in prefabricated and non-load bearing sandwich elements along with low density foamed concrete (FC) and glass fibre reinforced polymer continuous connecting devices. Experiments and finite element analysis (FEA) were applied to characterize the structural performance of the developed sandwich elements. The mechanical behaviour of the individual materials, components and large-scale elements were quantified. Four-point bending tests were performed on large-scale TRRPC-FC sandwich element beams to quantify the flexural capacity, level of composite action, resulting deformation, crack propagation and failure mechanisms. Optical measurements based on digital image correlation were taken simultaneously to enable a detailed analysis of the underlying composite action. The structural behaviour of the developed elements was found to be highly dependent on the stiffness and strength of the connectors to ensure composite action between the two TRRPC panels. As for the FEA, the applied modelling approach was found to accurately describe the stiffness of the sandwich elements at lower load levels, while describing the stiffness in a conservative manner after the occurrence of connector failure mechanisms. © 2018, The Author(s).

This report provides an overview about recent research activities and current practice concerning inspection and monitoring of the structural performance of bridges and the related decision-making process. A brief review of common methods of collecting information on structural performance of bridges is presented, followed by a description of the use of the information collected in structural analysis and maintenance planning. An overview about the state of the art is given including recent scientific developments. Finally, the current Swedish practice for bridge management is presented.

In fibre reinforced concrete (FRC), understanding the underlying interaction mechanisms between discrete fibres and the surrounding concrete matrix can lead to the optimization of the fibre-matrix combination. This paper presents the initial development of a method enabling the analysis of this given interaction on ameso-mechanical level. The method is such that volume images are initially captured using X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) on small-scale FRC specimens under loading which are thereafter analysed to measure full 3D strainand deformation via Digital Volume Correlation (DVC). It is anticipated that the method developed in this project can be a useful tool for the developmentof new innovative and high performance FRC.