Comparative Life-Cycle Analysis of Two Repair Measures for Chloride Contaminated Concrete Structures

Abstract

Often the mere mention of the word “Sustainability” leads to the reflection of the effect of our actions on environment and future generations. Especially the application of reinforced concrete as the most used construction material has a huge impact on a society being sustainable. Thus, the construction industry focuses on the design of environmentally- and resource-friendly buildings. However, due to our aging infrastructure and expected high demand of maintenance and repair in future, a further look on the sustainability of different repair measures for reinforced concrete structures has been neglected in the past. This paper presents a comparative case study of the life-cycle analysis of two different repair measures for reinforced concrete affected by chloride-induced corrosion. The selected repair measures – removal of the chloride-contaminated concrete and cathodic protection – are the most common repair measures in Germany. In future way concrete repair measure could be selected not only by the costs but as well by their environmental impact. This paper provides first information to achieve this target.

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