Ricerc@Sapienza

The urgent need to take a significant step-change towards the development of a systematic and comprehensive National Plan for the Safety evaluation, Risk Reduction and Maintenance/Repairing of the Italian existing reinforced concrete buildings and bridges - designed and constructed in the 20th century often with a currently longer-than-originally-designed life span - has become particularly evident after the recent catastrophic earthquakes (L'Aquila 2009, Emilia 2012, Central Italy, 2016).
On one hand the level of performance expectations/requirements/objectives, implemented through structural detailing, design methodology, quality control and assurance, for new structures and infrastructures has been continuously improving in the past decades, making existing/older structures inherently obsolete and potentially less adequate in terms of safety and overall expected performance. On the other hand, the natural aging and possible deterioration of the mechanical characteristics of the material (mild steel, prestressed steel, concrete, adherence/bond between the two), including effects of concrete carbonatation, steel ossidation and corrosion, as well as fatigue issues, requires specific and special approaches to assess the condition of the structure as well as to plan medium-to-long term maintenance/repairing/retrofit interventions.
This project intends to build on the most recent international developments (e.g. New Zealand, US, Japan, Europe) in the area of vulnerability, safety and condition assessment of existing buildings and bridges to develop a first set of specific Guidelines in order to quantitatively assess - through a mechanical (analytical) and semi-probabilistic approach - the Residual Capacity and Safety of Damaged (by earthquake events) and/or Deteriorated Reinforced Concrete Buildings and Bridges.