Survey of Concrete Cracking Exploring Causes Evaluation Methods and Repair Techniques for Structural Integrity

Abstract

repair and management of concrete cracking has remained a critical issue in contemporary construction projects mainly because the damage interferes with the durability, performance, and reliability of structures and infrastructures around the world. This survey focuses on the various reasons that lead to occurrence of concrete cracking, the causes are environmental factors, material imperfection, loading and design problems. This paper offers a detailed discussion of the existing techniques of evaluation and concentrates on the traditional empirical ways of assessing the damages on a structure, as well as the progressive non-destructive testing methods which are the ultrasonic pulse velocity, the infrared thermography, as well as the digital image correlation technique. The survey also reflects the advantages and drawbacks of these techniques as well as their best fit cases making a comparison between the techniques. Moreover, the paper explores several repair strategies used to reduce the impact of cracking from simple and transverse crack sealing to various epoxies including epoxy injection and the complex structural retrofitting. Things like the efficiency of each technique, cost of each technique in completing the task, and kind of strength and types of cracks each technique is ideal for are all put into consideration. The survey also focuses on measures that have to be taken in advance to prevent such problems as cracking, for instance, enhancing the materials used, refining the design and increasing efforts to prevent cracking by maintenance. This research synthesizes learning acquired from various studies and practices into a single source that can be useful for engineers, architects, and researchers. The identified prompt elevates the issue of including innovative evaluation and repair solutions in prolonging the service life of structures’ performance. Emerging issues in the field are forecasted; the automation of monitoring techniques and the use of environmentally friendly repair materials are also suggested for the future application. This survey helps to extend the condition of concrete engineering by providing the overview and significant tips about the cracking problems for efficient managing in civil engineering construction.