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Using Monte-Carlo simulations to evaluate the efficiency of different strategies for nondestructive assessment of concrete strength

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Abstract

An international benchmark comparing a large variety of concrete strength assessment strategies was proposed by NDT experts of the RILEM committee TC-249. It was based on synthetic data and devoted to the estimation of average strength and concrete strength variability of a series of concrete columns of a single floor building using fixed budget. Based on information gathered after this benchmark, the main contribution of this paper is to simulate, using Monte Carlo simulation, the experts’ assessment strategies (i.e. NDT investigation program and data analysis process). These strategies are repeated a certain number of times in order to establish a representative assessment of each strategy. The quality of estimation by each strategy is evaluated using several indicators. The results show that this quality can be improved by using/changing several controlling factors: improving the quality of measurements, selecting core locations depending on the NDT test results (conditional cores), combining several NDT techniques and increasing the amount of resources.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge all members of RILEM Technical Committee TC-249 ISC for their efforts in preparing this benchmark. Special thanks are due to S. Biondi, M. Fontan, V. Luprano S. and K. Szilágyi for sharing the information about their strategies in the benchmark.

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Correspondence to Maitham Alwash.

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Alwash, M., Breysse, D. & Sbartaï, Z.M. Using Monte-Carlo simulations to evaluate the efficiency of different strategies for nondestructive assessment of concrete strength. Mater Struct 50, 90 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-016-0962-x

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