Preface

Title: Preface
Author(s): K. van Breugel, Yong Yuan
Paper category : conference
Book title: 2nd International Symposium on Service Life Design for Infrastructures
Editor(s): K. van Breugel, Guang Ye, Yong Yuan
Print-ISBN: 978-2-35158-096-7
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-097-4
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2010
Pages: XXIX - XXIX
Total Pages: 1
Language: English

Abstract: Huge amounts of money are spent every year on maintenance and repair of concrete structures. Whereas the direct costs of repair and maintenance of infrastructures are very high already, the indirect costs due to process and traffic interruption are even much higher and constitute an enormous financial burden for the society. On top of that there is an increasing awareness of the impact of building activities on the environment. Concrete is the most widely used man-made building material and its production requires large amounts of raw materials. Moreover, the production of cement is reported to be responsible for 5 to 8 % of the world’s CO2 emission. These facts, together with the estimated increase in building activities in the coming decades, particularly in rapidly growing economies in Asia, form the reason for increasing attention for improved service life design of concrete structures.

In 2006 the Tongji University, Shanghai, took to initiative to organize an international workshop on Service Life Design for Underground Structures, together with the Technical University of Delft. That workshop was a success and it was decided to organize a similar event in 2010, beit with a wider scope. That decision has resulted in this Second International Symposium on Service Life Design for Infrastructure (SLD’10) in Delft, The Netherlands, jointly organized by TU Delft and Tongji University.

The response on the call for papers was encouraging and convincingly illustrated the importance of the subject. Finally around 140 papers were submitted, coming from more than 25 countries. The contributions cover the wide, coherent field of service life design and make this symposium to a meeting point for researchers, design engineers and owners of infrastructure. Service life design, however, is not a goal in itself. We believe that we are still in the beginning of major transitions in the building industry, not in the least inspired by the need of more sustainable concepts. Service life design fits in a more comprehensive vision on sustainable development. This requires a multidisciplinary approach of the issue. This might complicate the problem and its solutions, but also constitutes a big challenge and will disclose possibilities for unconventional and innovative concepts. We do hope that the exchange of ideas and sharing of knowledge among researchers, engineers and owners during this symposium will contribute to improvements in service life design of infrastructure and hence to a more sustainable built environment.

SLD’10 is a RILEM event and has been organized jointly by the School of Civil Engineering of Tongji University, Shanghai, China, and the faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences / Microlab of Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. The organizers would like to thank all the members of the scientific committee, the sponsors of SLD’10 and the respected delegates from all over the world to make this symposium to a success.

Online publication: 2011-04-20
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00