CONCRETING WORKMANSHIP AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SERVICEABILITY RELIABILITY

A serviceability reliability model is used herein to calculate probabi lities of serviceability failure for reinforced concrete beams. Result s are reported herein of a survey investigating the percentage of cons truction sites that exhibit poor, fair or good levels of workmanship f or concreting tasks that influence concrete compressive strength; name ly, compaction and curing. Using this information, probabilistic model s have been developed to describe the influence that these tasks have on concrete compressive and tensile strengths. These material property models are included in the serviceability reliability model. It was f ound that poor concreting workmanship reduced serviceability reliabili ty by more than an order of magnitude, and that inadequate curing is m ore detrimental to serviceability performance than inadequate compacti on. The incorporation of element dimension and reinforcement placement errors into the analysis had little influence on serviceability relia bilities.