Method and system for estimating degradation and durability of concrete structures and asset management system making use of same

A system for estimating degradation and durability characteristics of a concrete structure under test, the concrete structure under test being a reinforced concrete structure, said system comprising:

• a) a set of inputs for receiving information associated with the concrete structure under test;
• b) a concrete degradation simulation unit for processing the information received at the set of inputs for estimating degradation and durability characteristics of the concrete structure under test, said concrete degradation simulation unit being programmed for:
• i) receiving through the set of inputs location-dependent information associated with the concrete structure under test and conveying structural information associated with different locations along the concrete structure under test, the location-dependent information having been obtained by applying a non-destructive testing (NDT) process to the concrete structure under test;
• ii) processing the location-dependent information associated with the concrete structure under test in combination with:
• (1) information conveying material properties associated with the concrete structure under test;
• and
• (2) information conveying estimated environmental conditions to which the concrete structure under test is subjected;
• the processing being for deriving concrete degradation simulation data, the derived concrete degradation simulation data information conveying estimated degradation and durability characteristics associated with at least some of the different locations along the concrete structure under test;
• iii) releasing a result signal conveying the estimated degradation and durability characteristics of the concrete structure under test;
• c) a display device for displaying information conveying degradation and durability characteristics of the concrete structure under test based on the result signal released by the concrete degradation simulation unit.

A computer program product, tangibly stored on one or more tangible computer readable storage media, for estimating degradation and durability characteristics of reinforced concrete structures, the computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a programmable system including at least one programmable processor to perform operations, said operations comprising:

• a) receiving location-dependent information associated with the concrete structure under test and conveying structural information associated with different locations along the concrete structure under test, the location-dependent information having been obtained by applying a non-destructive testing (NDT) process to the concrete structure under test;
• b) processing the location-dependent information associated with the concrete structure under test in combination with:
• i) information conveying material properties associated with the concrete structure under test;
• and
• ii) information conveying estimated environmental conditions to which the concrete structure under test is subjected;
• the processing being for deriving concrete degradation simulation data, the derived concrete degradation simulation data information conveying estimated degradation and durability characteristics associated with at least some of the different locations along the concrete structure under test;
• c) releasing a signal for causing the estimated degradation and durability characteristics of the concrete structure under test to be displayed on a display device in communication with the system.