Sangiorgio, Valentino (2019) Development of a decision support system for the structural degradation analysis of RC buildings supported by user-reported data and modern information technologies. PhD thesis, Politecnico di Bari, Italy.
Abstract
Exposure to aggressive environmental agents and aging can seriously harm reinforced concrete (RC) structures and affect the building's service life. In particular, many buildings built during the extensive dissemination of RC construction technique present criticalities regarding performance and durability due to many issues: inadequate design of technical details, incorrect execution method, inadequate materials, improper maintenance or intrinsic limits and vulnerability of concrete. Consequently, management and monitoring of existing buildings is a complex issue for holders and administrators that are responsible for the building operability and user safety. On the other hand, large-scale degradation analysis and maintenance procedures present critical points: i) non-uniform building knowledge, ii) need of performing several inspections, iii) complexity of the diagnostics related to the subjectivity of the surveyor, iv) vastness and deployment of buildings in the region. Such issues become particularly complex for public or private administrators, who usually have limited resources and often cannot rely on methodologies and tools to face the problem. This thesis proposes an innovative approach for detecting building criticalities. In order to achieve the new system, four synergistically related methods are suitably developed and listed as follows: i) a novel DSS methodology for buildings' assessment supported by modern Internet of Things tools (smart devices) and information technologies; ii) an innovative Optimized AHP (O-AHP) based on a mathematical programming problem; iii) a calibration procedure based on the Tuutti model to consider the damage evolution of reinforcements' corrosion and tune the KPIs; iv) a test site involving 131 buildings on the Valencian coasts to test the DSS. In particular, the proposed DSS includes an innovative software application implemented on mobile devices and a web service-based Quality Detection Platform (QDP) that stores and processes data. The application allows the building users to report criticalities through photographic acquisition and to answer a specific questionnaire. Collected data are processed by the QDP, which quantifies critical issues through the set of key performance indices (KPIs). The DSS allows monitoring buildings at the regional scale and provides a classification of the most damaged buildings, which is useful for civil protection aims and for the prioritization of interventions.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Uva, Giuseppina and Fatiguso, Fabio |
| Index terms: | reinforcement, monitoring, internet, service life, critical issue, platform, coasts, durability, degradation, acquisition, inspection, evolution, methodology, dissemination, mathematical programming, reinforced concrete, vulnerability, corrosion, questionnaire, agent, exposure, smart device, complexity, information technology, decision support, subjectivity, face |
| Subjects: | material degradation and durability, building materials, computing systems, control systems, business, data collection methods, risk assessment, systems engineering, decision analysis, knowledge translation, public and environmental health, innovation and technology management, environmental science, psychology, practitioner, human factors and perception, environmental hazards, quality assurance, asset management, digital design, research methods, algorithms, physical geography and landforms |
| Topics: | Geographical Context, Engineering Principles, Health and Safety, Sustainability, Risk Management, Quality Management, Research Practice, Construction Materials, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions, Digital Applications, Organizational Design, Site Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here