MONITORING OF REINFORCEMENT CORROSION FOR MAINTENANCE OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES – THE CASE OF SAN SIRO STADIUM IN MILANO

The problems related to the deterioration of reinforced concrete structures led to greater attention towards durability and prevention. Nowadays, durability of reinforced concrete structures is a basic requirement in the design codes and in the standards worldwide. The deterioration of reinforced concrete, mainly caused by reinforcement corrosion, may affect the safety and the serviceability of the structure and results in considerable costs (i.e.: maintenance, repair, social and environmental costs …). To guarantee the required performance and safety of the structures and to reduce costs, it is essential, that controls and inspections are carried out during the service life of the structures. These allow to evaluate the actual conservation conditions of the structure, identify the causes of deterioration and estimate its evolution. In this way it is possible to determine the residual service life of the structure and select and schedule repairs and maintenances. Nevertheless, controls and inspections provide a snapshot of the condition of the structure (at the moment they are performed). To evaluate the evolution of the conditions of the structure over time and therefore obtain more accurate information, it is necessary to carry out a monitoring. A monitoring system of the parameters related to durability allows the conditions of a structure to be continuously updated, reducing field inspections (costly) and facilitates efficient scheduling of the maintenance. Data of inspections, controls and monitoring of the reinforced concrete structures of San Siro stadium in Milano are reported. These are used for the evaluation of the conservation conditions of the structure, to estimate the evolution of the deterioration (reinforcement corrosion), analyse the effectiveness of repairs carried out over time and schedule maintenance.