Probabilistic Assessment of Biodeterioration Effects on Reinforced Concrete Sewers

The worldwide current practice of the structural design of sewers is based on procedures which usually include the effects caused by chemical and biological deterioration. However, in the last few decades, many sewer pipes have been designed using reinforced concrete which have succinctly considered such deterioration promoters. Indeed, knowledge related to reinforced concrete deterioration processes has become an important issue when forecasting the expected or remaining lifespan of sewers. Within these processes, thickness and strength losses and porosity augments have been found to be the result of the vital activity of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and some types of fungus. This paper presents a rational methodology that uses biodeterioration measurements to describe how biodeterioration effects can affect the probability of failure during the lifetime of sewers. The probability of failure was obtained using Monte Carlo simulations based on numerical sampling from lognormal and uniform distributions. The concrete and reinforcement strength, geometric properties, H2S concentration in the headspace, and load values were considered as the main sources of uncertainty. The results indicate that the expected service lifespan can vary between 55 and 37 years for low and high H2S concentrations, respectively.