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1. Opening of the meeting and Addresses from RILEM.
The chairlady, Prof. Yao Yan, made a warm welcome speech at the beginning of the meeting. She said that the new TC and the meeting were impossible without the assistance and guidance of Prof. Gettu, Prof. Wittmann and Mrs. Pascaleand then Dr. Li Juan briefly introduced the participants.
Prof. Peter Richner, the president of RILEM, presented the mission of RILEM and he said that the new TC has been initiated and promoted by people coming from China. This makes RILEM more international than before. He also encouraged the members of the new TC to work hard to achieve the ambitious goal within the set time limits. He personally is convinced that the new TC will achieve its goals and he wishes all the best. Next, Prof. Mark Gavin Alexander, the Vice-president of RILEM and Prof. Geert De Schutter, the director of the Development Committee of RILEM, also said a few words of on behalf of RILEM in order to welcome the new TC participants and RILEM members and to express their appreciation. They expressed their best wishes to a successful work of the new TC and they were said that they are confident that the technical committee will be able to produce good results. They all expressed their thanks for all our efforts to organize this committee within the framework of RILEM and they added that we should not hesitate to contact them or the RILEM secretariat in case of questions, problems or suggestions. They all found that the relevant information and documentation prepared for the starting meeting (see appendix 2) is promising and professional.
2. Aims and tasks of RILEM TC-TDC and introduction of members of the TC-TDC
2.1 Aims and tasks of RILEM TC-TDC
First of all, Prof. Yao Yan introduced the Chinese Building Materials Academy and herself briefly. CBMA is the largest comprehensive research organization and centre for development of new technologies in the field of building materials and inorganic non-metallic materials in China. Prof. Yao Yan worked for CBMA for more than 30 years and successfully finished dozens of national key scientific research projects related to concrete durability. Some results were applied directly in important national engineering projects, such as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the Three Gorges Dam. Her work has improved the safety and extended the service life of important concrete structures in China.
Prof. Yao Yan said that the new RILEM TC would last for four years. In the coming four years, the final goal of the TC-TDC was to publish a RILEM recommendation for newly developed test methods for concrete durability under the combined actions of environmental and mechanical load. The expected results could be classified into three parts, namely, a comprehensive annotated bibliography, a RILEM recommendation and two international workshops or conferences.
During the first year, the TC would mainly focus on the literature review and intend to publish an annotated bibliography on durability under combined actions. The TC-TDC would also prepare a state-of-the-art report on available test methods. Based on this report a test program for first comparative test series shall be developed. But in the first place the TC has to find enough enthusiastic colleagues to join us within this ambitious program.
In the second year, first comparative test series shall be carried out in several laboratories in different countries. Results shall be analyzed in detail by a working group. First results shall serve as a basis for further comparative test series.
In the third year, the work could be divided into three parts, namely, carrying out the second comparative test series, critical evaluation of test results and pointing out the relevance for prediction of service life of reinforced concrete structures. The intention was to organize an international workshop on “Service life of Reinforced Concrete Structures under Combined Loads”. On this occasion the obtained results could be presented to a wider audience and the feedback could be taken into consideration by the members of the RILRM TC-TDC.
The last year would be devoted to run supplementary test series and prepare the publication of a RILEM recommendation. In addition, major results of the two comparative test series have to be evaluated and published.
Towards the end of the fourth year or at the beginning of the fifth year an international conference should be held to promote the academic exchange among specialists in this field and to communicate most important achievements. This meeting might at the same time be the origin of a follow-up TC.
2.2 Introduction of members of the TC-TDC; brief description of research fields and experiences
5 members gave short presentations to introduce themselves and their specific work related to the new TC. These presentations helped to promote a common understanding among members.
Prof. Wang Ling presents the States Key Laboratory of Green Building Materials of China. The laboratory was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China in December 2007. It is the top grade key enterprise laboratory, it provides application of technology of energy saving and promotes the sustainable development of building materials. It is a R&D platform, training platform and international platform for academic and technical exchange of knowledge and recent results of building materials. The durability research centre aims at the research on the performance under the effect of coupled factors and new materials and technologies for the extension of service life. In the last decade, 2 research projects about durability of concrete under combined actions were carried out in the lab. They focus on the test equipment, the testing method of concrete durability under synergetic effects of any combination of freeze-thaw cycles, de-icing salt attack, rebar corrosion and bending load. An innovation device for simulating concrete degradation was invented.
Prof. F. H. Wittmann introduced the work going on in the Centre for Durability Studies at Qingdao Technological University on behave of Prof. Zhao Tiejun. Their research areas were mainly about high strength/performance concrete, properties of concrete under combined environmental and mechanical loads, deterioration mechanisms of concrete, strain hardening cement-based composites (SHCC) and service life of concrete structures. Several research results were applied in the construction of a subsea tunnel and a long bridge crossing the sea bay in marine environment and they will also be applied in the construction of the new subway system in Qingdao.
Prof. Erik Schlangen introduced the campus, faculty and research field of their group in Delft university (Microlab). They have a big group active in concrete durability. Their main research fields include micro-mechanical properties, recycling technology, durability and sustainability of cement-based systems.
Prof. Xing Feng described the durability centre, faculty and research scope of the Shenzhen university. To facilitate the society and economy development, they established a durability centre in 2003. They intend to become one of the top grade national research platforms. Now, the durability centre was playing a significant and positive role in the development of society and economy of Shenzhen city. Besides, they also investigate service life design of building structures and application of new types of materials and quality control of structures.
Prof. Carmen Andrade has worked as a scientist studying the durability of buildings, with particular attention to the physical-chemical phenomena of corrosion of steel in reinforced concrete. She has been General Director of Technological Policy of the Ministry of Education and Science and she is Advisor to the Secretary of State Universities in the Ministry of Science and Innovation. At the meeting she introduced an innovative test method to determine the corrosion of steel bars and discussed some details with Prof. Wittmann.
3.Correponding members, recruitment
3.1Correponding members and recruitment
It was discussed that more corresponding members would be invited to join the TC. That is to say, it could consist of regular members and corresponding members. Regular members are supposed to participate in all meetings of the TC. Corresponding members may also attend but they can also contribute to the work by correspondence only. Some experts may be invited to become corresponding members in case they cannot attend regular meetings because of financial reasons and time. The TC should attract more corresponding members to contribute to the new TC, and the corresponding members could be in laboratories. It was felt that co-operation in a RILEM TC may be of special interest for young researchers. Each regular member was requested to nominate 1-2 corresponding members.
A lot of work could be done by corresponding members in the first two years and meetings are not so important during this initial time.
3.2 Formation of two sub-groups
Like most TCs, a comprehensive literature review should be established during the first year. It is easy for all colleagues interested in this field to learn the state-of-the-art from this bibliography. At the same time, we should also very carefully look into the already available test methods. In order to work efficiently and effectively, the activity of the TC-TDC should be split into two groups. Group A mainly shall focus on establishing the comprehensive bibliography on combined actions, what can be learned from the literature, which has already been published in international journals, conference proceedings and books. Equally important, literature published in a language other than English, such as in German, Russian, Japanese and French has also to be collected and analyzed. In this latter case members of the TC from the corresponding language area shall be asked to translate at least the abstract into English.
In addition, by the end of the first year, Group B should have compiled all publications in which test methods, which have been applied already, are described. These test methods should be summarized to establish a second state-of-the-art-report on test method to study the action of combined loads. In addition members of group B should describe in a summary report the most promising test methods and what the most dangerous combined actions are.
Prof. Carman Andrade, Prof. Erik Schlangen, Prof. Wang Ling, Prof. Peter Richner and Prof. F. H. Wittmann have intensively discussed the form of load, frost damage, thermal damage and the difference between simultaneous load and consecutive load at the meeting. The participants all think that we should come up with a complete list of potential combinations. A critical comparison of the different test methods shall be carried out in order to find out the most critical load combinations in practice and find the most promising test methods to provide us with realistic results. Most critical load combination should be studied first. Other combinations may be studied in follow up TCs.
Finally, Chairlady Prof. Yao suggested that Prof. Folker H. Wittmann and Dr. Wang Zhendi should act as chairman and secretary respectively of the subcommittee A and Prof. Wang Ling and Dr. Li Juan should act as chairlady and secretary respectively of subgroup B during the first year. This suggestion was adopted by acclamation.
In summary, The TC will have two working groups A and B during the first year.
Group A：Literature review on the behaviour of concrete under combined actions
Chairman :Prof. F. H. Wittmann , Secretary: Dr. WANG Zhendi
Group B：Literature review on test methods to study the influence of combined loads
Chairlady: Prof. Wang Ling, Secretary: Dr. LI Juan
According to the reply of each member’s data file and the area where they live and work, members need to review the literature that from their owe region and assigned areas. the group classification and division of work are shown in the following table(see appendix 3):
4. Place and time of the next meeting
Chairlady Prof. Yao suggested that there should be separate meetings of both working groups A and B just before the 2nd plenary meeting of TC-TDC, which will be held in Beijing, China on May 15~17th, 2012 The working groups can first discuss their results and then present the most important results to the other group respectively. Members are invited to visit the Chinese Building Materials Academy on this occasion.
The 3rd meeting of TC-TDC shall be held on 2nd of Sept, 2012 just before the RILEM week 2012 in Cape town, South Africa. It will be of great interest to visit at the same time the laboratories of University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, directed by TC member Professor Gideon van Zijl.The state-of-the-art report on available results from the literature and the draft of the report on recently applied test methods shall be discussed during these meetings.
5. Closing remarks by Prof. Yao Yan
The chairlady Prof. Yao Yan made closing remarks. She said that the first step of a long journey has been done; all items of the agenda of the first meeting have been discussed in depth. This was a fruitful and interesting meeting. She appreciates the warm assistance from Prof. Ravindra Gettu, Mrs. Pascale Ducornet and Prof. Folker H. Wittmann. They had helped us a lot earlier this year during the preparatory phase of the new RILEM TC. She also expressed her sincere thanks to Prof. Peter Richner, Prof. Mark Alexander and Prof. Geert De Schutter for their encouragement and sincere support. She also gratefully acknowledged the help and all efforts of the experts present at the first meeting. She also extends her thanks to those who could not join the meeting because of other commitments for being prepared to contribute to the work of the new TC. She hopes and wishes that the work of TC-TDC will be successful by co-operation of all regular and corresponding members. She looks forward to meeting all the members in Beijing on May 2012 and wishes them a safe journey back.
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