Proposed Structural Reliability-Based Approach for the Classification of Concrete Quality

Abstract

The need for quality control in the ready-mixed concrete industry is increasingly emerging as a tool for ensuring the achievement of the highest possible quality in the produced concrete with the lowest practical price. In typical construction projects, the compressive concrete strength is the most important criterion in judging the acceptability of a produced concrete batch from a given plant. Variability in the compressive strength of the concrete batches of any plant is inevitable. Such variability has led researchers in the field of quality control to analyze the statistics of these results in order to draw conclusions about the quality of the concrete plant and ways to improve it. Ultimately, the goal of the owner of a structure being constructed, the engineer in charge of its construction, and hence the quality control professionals is the safety of the structure that the concrete is intended to be used for constructing. The quality of the concrete can be viewed as a means for the end goal, the structural safety. Therefore, a more informed decision could be made regarding the quality of the concrete if the structural safety is used as an indicator. Structural reliability theory and tools are commonly used nowadays for the quantification of structural safety under uncertainty. In this study, an approach for classifying the quality of ready-mixed concrete using structural reliability as a metric will be proposed. The influence of the statistical parameters of concrete on the structural reliability of the structural elements constructed with this concrete is investigated. Classification charts for classifying the quality of concrete based on the values of its statistical parameters and with reference to the attained structural reliability are proposed.