Risk Evaluation And Climate Change Adaptation Of Civil Engineering Infrastructures And Buildings

Project RI-ADAPTCLIM

Panagiotis Kotronis, Panagiotis Kotronis

• Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781119671435
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Ingegneria civile

This book brings together a selection of the scientific results of the RI ADAPTCLIM project (International Network on Risk Assessment and Climatic Adaptation of Civil Engineering and Buildings Works). Funded by the Pays de la Loire region in France as part of the 2014 Stratégie Internationale call for projects, research teams from the scientific group LiRGeC (ECN, UN, IFSTTAR, CSTB) and several international partners contributed their human, experimental and digital resources. RI-ADAPTCLIM was established to study the short- and medium term effects of climatic conditions on buildings, infrastructures and the ground. Following an integrated, interdisciplinary and multi-physics approach, the researchers proposed decision support tools that would increase the resilience of structures and buildings against the impact of hazards due to climate change.

1
Consideration of Seasonal Temperature Changes in the French Pavement Design Method

The current French pavement design method assumes a value of “θ_eq” for the equivalent temperature that is constant throughout the year and for the entire lifespan of the road structure. The goal of this study is to assess and quantify the effects of seasonal variations in temperature on the durability of road structures. In this work, three research sites were chosen. The first is located near Bordeaux. It has an oceanic climate typical of the Aquitaine region, which is characterized by very mild winters and very warm summers. The second site is located in Saint-Chély-d'Apcher, also in France. Its climate is characterized by harsh winters and sizeable temperature fluctuations occurring between day and night, and winter and summer. The third site is located in the experimental forest of Montmorency, north of Quebec City in Canada. Its cold and humid climate is largely due to its northerly and maritime location. The temperatures found both on the surface and inside road structures in these three sites were measured over several years. In this study, we have focused on three issues. The first was the effects of spatial variations (site and climate) in temperature on calculating the equivalent temperature θ_eq. The second relates to the effect of the structure type (inverted or thick bituminous) on calculating the θ_eq. Finally, the third issue is the effect of θ_eq on determining the thickness of the underlying bituminous layer and on the lifespan of the thick bituminous structure.

1.1. Introduction

Over the course of the last few decades, global warming has fluctuated with a significant rise since the 1980s. From 1959 to 2009, the observed trend is an increase of around 0.3°C in the average temperature of the surface of the globe each decade (from ONCERC¹, http://onerc.org). During this same period, the three warmest years were 2003, 2011, and 2015, respectively, thus all occurring in the 21st century. According to Météo France (2017), the average temperature during summer of 2017 was higher than normal with a 1.5°C increase, making it the second warmest summer, at the same rank as 2015, nevertheless far behind 2003 which saw a 3.2°C increase.

A recent review of climate models has allowed climatologists (Brown and Caldeira 2017) to confirm that there is a more rapid increase in climate change than predicted by the most pessimistic model created by GIEC² in 2014. According to their research, at this pace, the range of average temperature increase across the surface of the globe predicted for 2081—2100 will be between +2.6°C and +4.8°C when compared to preindustrial levels (1860).

Furthermore, many countries are confronted with significant differences in seasonal temperatures. As such, the durability of road structures may need to be reassessed if no precautions are taken on climate change, particularly in areas that have a high temperature gradient for summer and winter (Mauduit et al. 2013). Now more than ever, it is crucial that the durability of road structures depending on climatic conditions is studied in order to guarantee their continuity (Hammoum et al. 2016). This study is anchored in the framework of the RI-ADAPTCLIM project and financed by the Pays de la Loire region. On taking these issues into consideration, the main research question is as follows: how we must improve our current design methods in order to better mitigate the effects of climate on road infrastructure?

In practice, the designing of a road involves many variables, thus making it a particularly complex task for civil engineers (Doré et al. 2014). Indeed, over many se...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1 Consideration of Seasonal Temperature Changes in the French Pavement Design Method
• 2 Study of the Behavior of Offshore Wind Turbine Monopiles under Monotonic and Cyclic Lateral Loading
• 3 Carbonation of Concrete in a Climate Change Context
• 4 A Method for Estimating Suffusion Susceptibility of a Compacted Dam Core from Construction Data
• List of Authors
• Index
• End User License Agreement