Civil Engineering System: Multi-Storey Car Park
Multi-Storey Car parks are essential structures in crowded metropoles and very important for the individual mobility. In their early history, car parks main structural material was steel due to the high load of cars, but after the big steps in the concrete technology the basic material was concrete or a combination of the two materials. In this Assignment only concrete car parks will be considered.
Due to Chloride brought with the Cars from the streets, as well as carbonatation of concrete, the reinforcement gets affected, and in severe cases normal usage loads could lead to structural failure. Other than structural failure, car parks could reflect the degradation in form of cracks in the concrete, or on the park spaces. There are many ways to determine the degradation in concrete structures, in the report of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers EM 1110-2-2002 the best way to determine the situation of concrete and how affected the reinforcement is, is by crack depth monitoring. Other methods are also mentioned (Hammer test, ultrasound).
“Extensive renovations in short intervals, short-term closings and business interruptions – these are problems that every operator of a parking garage wants to avoid. But the reality is often different.
The system is exposed to free weather. This also applies to the decks below if a facade has been omitted. It is not uncommon for car parks to suffer damage faster than normal buildings due to stress. They are stressed by entry of moisture, chloride containing de-icing, mechanical abrasion and dynamic loads. [1]
Regular reviews are necessary to meet this obligation. Inspections by a competent person are recommended every three years in the relevant specialist literature as the usual inspection intervals. Depending on the size, frequency, and stress of the existing structure, however, inspections or maintenance work may be necessary once or twice a year etc. to be able to recognize. It is also very helpful for the inspector if an inventory book is available in which the construction structure and any previous damage are documented. Regardless of this, all inspections must always be documented in a traceable manner. [2]
The other civil engineering systems for the integrated system are a heating system and a wind turbine. All of these products are incorporated in overall maintenance strategies and are beeing assessed by a mulit- objective optimization.
[2] http://www.ibw-weber.de/pdf/wartung-instandhaltung-von-parkbauten-geregelt.pdf