Durability Design of Concrete Structures

9Durability Design: Applications

This chapter applies the durability design concepts and approaches to real engineering cases. Two cases with long design service life are presented in this chapter: concrete structures in a sea link project on the southeastern coast of China with design service life of 120 years, and high‐integrity containers (HICs) used for radioactive waste disposal with expected service life of 300 years. Both cases necessitate a global design strategy and model‐based design for target deterioration processes. The concrete structures in the sea link project are exposed in a marine environment, and the design strategy involves durability requirements on both material and structural levels. With chloride ingress identified as the control process, a model‐based method is used to determine the design value for the chloride diffusivity and the corresponding quality control parameters as well. The HICs serve in a near‐surface geological environment, expected to assure the containment function and mechanical stability during the disposal life. The model‐based method is used to solve the combined process of radionuclide transport and external leaching, the control process for container design, and to help the choice of key design parameters. Finally, some further aspects related to long service life design are addressed, in the context of life‐cycle engineering, referring to the design uncertainty, the quality control, and the durability redesign options.

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