Resilience

Abstract

Resilience of concrete structures was the main theme of the fib symposium 2020 in Shanghai, and in this editorial, I present some reflections from my online key-note lecture given at that occasion. I hope that these reflections can offer some food for thought on the future of the construction industry in general and of structural concrete in particular. Resilience stems from the Latin word resilio which means to jump back or to rebound from shocks which occur suddenly or more gradually. In the strict structural sense we can consider resilience of systems related to shock wise events such as explosions, earthquakes, fires, etc. which can be linked to robustness and redundancy. Resilience can also be considered with respect to the capacity of a system or society to resist climate change or pandemics. A further step is to look to the resilience of our society and the industry with respect to digitalization. We cannot deny the huge influence of digitalization on our daily life, characterized by a high degree of interconnectivity and information exchange at an amazingly high speed. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical objects that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet. Of course, this IoT also offers some threats and cybersecurity has become a hot topic. Examples of the IoT are smart cities where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital and communication technologies to support a city's resilience and sustainability. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen a rapid development in recent years, including machine learning and deep learning. In combination with drones appearing on the building sites and with embedded sensors, AI allows an optimized assessment and upgrading approach of existing structures. The implementation in industry of all these new evolutions is often called Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution. The COVID-19 pandemic has also a disruptive effect on the construction industry in the sense that transformations that were already taking place, will be accelerated. We will evolve to production systems that increasingly make use of modular components, automated manufacturing, robotics supported on-site execution and digital planning and production. All these trends will undoubtedly increase productivity as we experienced in the precast concrete industry. We also see Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality appearing on building sites resulting in a fully interactive 3D experience and thus improving the quality of the built environment. BIM allows to create a virtual model of a building that is made up of dynamic and intelligent virtual building components that contain information about their identity and geometry. The information stored in the BIM model can be extracted from it in various ways: in the form of plans, sections, 3D views, bill of quantities, estimates, space layouts, solar studies, etc. Worldwide we see applications of 3D printing, which allows full flexibility in defining the shape of concrete components and which can even be adapted to an optimized flow of forces, offering additional freedom in conceptual design. In the last decades, concrete evolved from a basic building material towards a tailor-made multi-component cementitious material with varying degrees of alternative binders. A full life cycle analysis results in eco-friendly green buildings within a broader sustainability concept. Without doubt, we live in a challenging era for the construction industry, or are there too many changes in a short time? Important is to look to these changes as an opportunity, to build in a more efficient and smart way: When the wind of change rises, some people build a screen and others a wind turbine. The COVID-19 pandemic also has drawn our attention to the societal impact of engineering. Interdisciplinary engineering approaches will gain more importance and even more important will be the interaction with the social sciences. Last but not least, we should also think about the future of our journal as a valuable source of information for fib members and the concrete world in general. How can we make our journal Structural Concrete resilient towards all new kinds of online solutions, social media networks, knowledge creation and updating from big data, etc.? Let me end these reflections by quoting Darwin: It is not the strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent. It is the one most adaptive to change.