HEALTH MONITERING & RETROFITTING OF A 50 YEAR OLD BUILDING

Abstract

It is a known fact that the Globe is facing a threat of natural disasters from time to time. With particular records based on earthquake occurrence, the consequences are loss of human lives and destruction of properties, which ultimately affects the natural economy. The occurrence of an earthquake cannot be predicted and prevented but the preparedness of the structures to resist earthquake forces become more important. Keeping the view of constant revision of the seismic zones in India, lack of proper design and detailing of structures against earthquake. So in present scenario health monitoring & strength assessment is very important and then those week structures can be retrofit to save life & money. NDT methods of testing concrete which are quite reliable, quick, relatively inexpensive, conventional to adopt and which do not any way disturb the structure, are therefore necessary. It is worthwhile noting that in addition to fulfilling this objective, NDT methods can also be used for the detection of flaws and cracks, for locating the position of reinforcement, for testing concrete at site for early striking of form work, for quality control of concrete in precast products industry and in the evaluation of physical characteristic of concrete etc. Among the methods for NDT of concrete, two have become fairly well known namely, the rebound hammer test and the ultrasonic pulse velocity test. In this project health monitoring & strength assessment is done on a building that is more than 50 years old using NDT, weakness in building is identified & then what retrofitting methods can be adopted.