Dr. Frank Vecchio at University of Toronto and Dr. Umesh Sharma at IIT Roorkee are developing diagnostic and assessment tools to better predict the safety and service life of concrete infrastructure.
Much of Canada’s critical infrastructure was built with a design life of 50 years and many of these structures have reached the end of their design service life. Engineers urgently need a tool that can rationally assess structures, prioritize a need for repair, and determine an ideal repair strategy.
General purposes tools used in assessment do not capture specific distinctions associated with reinforced concrete structures. Dr. Vecchio and his research team are developing tools that are specifically designed for this nuances. Their program Cyrus combines the analysis of several popular tools in one package to improve the overall efficiency and accuracy of the structural analysis. Cyrus can be used to analyze the main structure, the substructure, and the interactions between substructures.
“The software that is being developed as part of this IC-IMPACTS project allows to consider all of these factors in doing our modelling and analyses.”
Dr. Frank Vecchio, University of Toronto
There are many factors involved for a structure to become deficient. In India, structures are mainly deficient due to a lower of quality materials used and a low quality of workmanship performed. Due to a lack of funding for maintenance, Canadian structures are not repaired in a timely fashion.
“Much of Canada’s municipal infrastructure is at a critical juncture.”
2016 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card
Dr. Vecchio reflected on the collapse of the De la Concorde overpass near Montreal on September 30, 2006, killing 5 people and injuring 6 others. The De la Concorde overpass was built in 1970 using drop and span construction, a popular technique at the time that allowed for structures to be built quickly with minimal traffic interruption. Some of the beams were clearly showing signs of stress and diagonal cracking. On September 29, 2006, the day before the collapse, an inspection of the structure showed it was in need of repair but the information lacked a measure of severity and urgency. Vecchio noted that the incident may have been avoided if the inspector had known the level of magnitude of the stress and the level of urgency for repair.
“In the end, it is not a question of investing or not investing, it’s a question of cost and good infrastructure management.”
Raymond Louie, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
(as noted in 2016 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card)
Dr. Vecchio’s new structural modelling software can help improve asset management on a national level, potentially saving lives and millions of dollars.
2024 IC-IMPACTS Conference in Delhi December 9 - 11, 2024 New Delhi, India
