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As a consequence of climate change impact, a significant variation in terms of temperature, atmospheric humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration levels is happening. This condition leads to several negative effects on the safety and the life cycle of existing concrete structures, such as the increase in the rate of material degradation, due to corrosion phenomena. In fact, the presence of carbonation and corrosion phenomena significantly influence the load-bearing capacity of existing reinforced concrete (RC) structures, under both static and dynamic loads. Among the wide range of existing RC constructions, bridges stand out for their importance. Furthermore, as structures directly exposed to the weather effects, they are more susceptible to these phenomena. In this paper, the influence of corrosion on existing RC motorway viaducts' seismic behavior, considering the impact of climate change, is investigated, by means of an efficient procedure based on the implementation of 3D simplified finite element models and the use of analytical relations to obtain the amount of reduction in the steel reinforcement area as a function of the age of the bridge and of the different corrosion scenarios analyzed. Several scenarios for the expected variations in CO2 concentrations, temperature, and relative humidity are evaluated, considering that most of the viaducts present in the Italian motorway network were built between the 1960s and the 1970s. The results obtained using the projection of climate change impacts are compared with those calculated considering the corrosion scenarios resulting from the DuraCrete research project, to understand if the evolution of climate change leads to worse scenarios than those previously assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging infrastructures require huge budgets to preserve their functionality and the lack of effective maintenance leads to increasing deterioration and therefore higher repair costs. For these reasons, assessing the condition of infrastructures becomes mandatory, with particular attention to the ones still in service even when their life limit has been exceeded. In particular, this problem is really important in Countries, like Italy, in which there are several operating bridges at the end of their service life. In this framework, many companies responsible for the management of road networks have turned their interest towards Bridge Management Systems (BMS). This paper presents a fast and low‐cost method for condition rating of reinforced concrete bridges. The proposal is based on visual inspection and non‐destructive testing. A specific parameter is designed to take into account the mechanical degradation of materials and the damage location at the structural sub‐component level. Some benchmark case studies have been discussed in order to compare the proposed method with other approaches available in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The repair of historical masonry columns damaged by earthquakes is a complex engineering procedure. In most cases, these elements support important vertical loads, and, for this reason, the repairing interventions (such as block replacement) could generate critical modifications of the stress pattern and eventually lead to local failures of the masonry material. In order to prevent critical situations, the repair work should account a complete unloading-reloading process of the column. However, at this time, no specific indications are provided by technical codes and guidelines. In the present paper, the unloading-reloading process developed for the stone masonry columns of the Basilica di Collemaggio in L'Aquila (Italy) is presented. Particularly, two specific unloading systems were designed and verified with advanced finite element analyses. A three-dimensional finite element model of the colonnade and supported nave wall was implemented to check if the unloading-reloading process would significantly change the state of stress in the masonry, causing local failures. The geometry of the structure was reconstructed from a complete laser scanner survey of the church, by considering all the intrinsic irregularities of heritage constructions. Finally, a comparison between the numerical results and the corresponding values measured during the worksite intervention was carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]