Assessment of a fire damaged reinforced concrete building

Abstract

A proper condition assessment of reinforced concrete structure after a fire event involves field and la-boratory work to determine the extent of fire in order to design an appropriate and cost effective repair scheme. The present paper presents a case study where an attempt has been made to carry out a condition assessment of a fire damaged building in a systematic manner. The approach adopted broadly consisted of questioning of on-site per-sonnel, a detailed visual survey, on-site non-destructive / partially-destructive tests, collection of in-situ samples from site along with some laboratory based investigations on samples collected from site. Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) Analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) Imaging were con-ducted for microstructural characterization and analysis of concrete to correlate, corroborate and validate the results obtained through on-site assessment. Since the building was an old structure, carbonation depth in structural mem-bers was also evaluated. Finally, based on the visual inspections indicating the condition of surface and structural elements such as spalling, exposure and condition of reinforcement, cracks, honeycombing etc. along with Non-Destructive Test / Laboratory test results, the repair methodology of structural members are presented.