Climate-Induced Conservation Risks of Historic Reinforced Concrete Buildings: Preliminary Results From Literature Review

Abstract

Abstract. Environmental conditions can favour different kinds of deterioration in historic reinforced concrete structures. This preliminary results from literature review are focused on the climate-induced risks affecting reinforced concrete buildings with respect to mechanical, chemical, and biological deterioration. To this purpose, a three-step process defined by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) flow diagram, was used leading to the inclusion of 45 documents identified via the search engines Scopus and Web of Science. The outcomes highlight that chemical and mechanical decays are the most investigated ones, being mainly triggered by salt weathering and freezing-thawing cycles. It was found that experimental and theoretical approaches are often coupled to estimate climate-induced deterioration mechanisms, also considering environmental parameters. Finally, the literature search provides some milestones which can be used to evaluate gaps and research needs in the field of climate-induced conservative risks affecting reinforced concrete structures.