Reliability-based Approach to Optimal Economic Estimation of Concrete Cover Thickness under Carbonation Environment

Concrete carbonation is a cause of problems in concrete structures, so it needs to be estimated. And concrete cover is designed to protect structures from this damaging. Usually the cover thickness is considered based on the limit states design codes in which the important target is the reliability safety index. However, it is not clear that whether the safety index determined is optimal or not with respect to the cost. The codes are mainly proceeded quantitatively (i.e. making a safe structure) while the economic aspects are only considered qualitatively. So the reliability-based design considering life cycle cost (LCC) is called for, and here the focus is on the advanced analysis solution to optimize the reliability safety regarding LCC.