Influence of Global Warming on the RC Structures and Durability Monitoring in Civil Engineering

Abstract

Global warming has or will affect all aspects of human life on Earth. We will focus on the influence of global warming in civil engineering and the structural health monitoring (SHM) technologies here. Obviously, reinforcing concrete (RC) structures are the most important structural style in civil engineering. With the development of global warming and further deterioration of the environment, the conditions of RC structures now becomes more atrocious than that of before. In the past few decades, many tremendous bridges, skyscrapers, super dams and other huge harbor works have been built. These structures are expected to serve safely for tens of years to hundreds of years. Unfortunately, the corrosion of the reinforcing steel, called as “cancer of the steel”, has been a world-wide problem which deteriorates the durability of RC structures and degrades the serviceability severely. The corrosion of RC structures has resulted in very high repair costs, which sometimes are even much greater than the initial construction cost, and in some extreme situations, leaded to collapse of the structure. The corrosion of the reinforcing steel in concrete will then be a fatal attack to the durability of RC structures. Fortunately, structural health monitoring systems enable scientists and engineers to identify the status of structures, and then provide the foundation for safety assessment, service-life prediction, maintenance & reinforcement and full-life design of structures.