Birth Certificate and Through-Life Management Documentation

Book excerpt: While it is generally accepted by owners and users that vehicles such as airplanes or cars must be subjected to a pre-defined maintenance plan during their lifetime, this is less obvious in public opinion for engineering structures and buildings. This may be related to the general feeling that “moving objects” should be more sensitive to aging and deterioration than “structures anchored in ground”! This may also relate to the fact that detailed maintenance manuals, which are considered obligatory by insurance companies, are generally for aircraft, boats and cars, but not systematically for civil engineering structures, except for iconic or major projects. The performance-based approach to the durability design and assessment of concrete structures is also becoming increasingly popular in the construction sector. In recent years, numerous studies have been carried out worldwide in order to better assess the expected properties related to the durability of concrete. This has led to the standardization of test protocols, but also to a better understanding of the main parameters impacting the overall durability of concrete. Documentation related to durability indicators will then become increasingly necessary for the accurate implementation of a performance-based approach that enables the promotion of sustainable materials. Durability models have a strong need for relevant in-field data feedback in order to define accurate inputs for modelling both during the design process (gathered from previous projects) and during the follow-up process to allow for re-calibration of inputs and re-assessment of durability expectations by the models if judged necessary. A framework for data collection was therefore considered extremely importance by the fib Commission 8: Durability, and is the objective of this fib Technical report “Birth-certificate and Through-Life Management Documentation”. It is indeed very important to collect relevant data within a comprehensive and standardized format, as now proposed by this fib Bulletin. Thanks to its pre-defined format, compatible with the general fib framework, “Birth-certificate and Through-Life Management Documentation” will definitively be useful to owners for the maintenance plan and intervention strategies of their assets. This operational technical report will also be very useful for designers, as it should encourage the collection of relevant information in databases to be used for future projects where a realistic assessment of expected properties is considered through largely similar concrete mix designs under given exposure conditions. The Commission, which deals with durability aspects, hopes that this Bulletin will provide users a valuable tool and perspective on service life management issues.