Prediction of the Chloride Ingress Resistance of Concrete Based on Non‐Destructive Tests in the Context of Structural Reuse

Abstract The full‐fledged reuse of reinforced concrete elements that have been extracted from existing constructions after decades of service under known and unknown loadings and environmental exposures requires a reliable and accurate framework for their overall characterization and classification also for service conditions different from those of the primary use. As a rule, assessing the load‐bearing capacity and durability for various reuse scenarios would require an extensive and detailed investigation at the material and element level including the definition of material properties, inherent damage and degradation, as well as reinforcement detailing. This would imply an unsustainable assessment effort and render the reuse of old elements unfeasible or financially unattractive. Thus, reliable just‐in‐time element inspection strategies must be developed based on non‐destructive testing (NDT) methods. The measurement data should be evaluated within a multi‐modal analysis space for predicting the relevant durability parameters of concrete and classifying the elements into durability resistance classes. In this paper, an exemplary selection of methods and method combinations is presented with emphasis on the resistance of concrete against chloride ingress.