From In-situ Corrosion Detection to Structural Evaluation: A Simplified Protocol for the Assessment of Existing RC Structures

The actual level of deterioration, especially connected to corrosion, is a critical information to be included in the whole assessment process for existing RC structures, to allow for a reliable assessment of the structure as-is condition, an effective choice of the renovation strategy, and the prediction of the structural performances along the renovated life cycle. The DEMSA protocol, enabling the detection, evaluation, and modelling of corrosion effects on RC structures was recently proposed by the authors. The whole procedure guiding the engineer from the on-site inspection to structural evaluation is briefly described herein, and focus is made on the description of the new tools conceived to define such a simplified procedure available for the professional practice. In this paper, the validation of the procedure is presented, through the application of the protocol to some reference case-studies.