Description
The major goal of this paper is to use effective and accurate procedures to monitor, model and predict the evolution of the deterioration and safety conditions of highly complex structural systems such as preheater towers (PTs) in cement plants. The main structural elements of reinforced concrete PTs are exposed to severe conditions during their service life, which can trigger deterioration phenomena that significantly affect their structural safety. It is necessary to maintain them in operational and safe conditions, while taking into account the needs of permanent upgrading of the mechanical equipment they support. Digital survey techniques are used to obtain three-dimensional information about the towers. These are fast and accurate solutions for the development of BIM-oriented reverse-engineering procedures. The information provided by the implemented methodology is used to characterize the appropriate representation of the problem boundary conditions and to calibrate the computational models. The BIM-to-FEM approach is performed to obtain the elastic model of the structure in its as-built and degraded states. This information serves as a predictive model for the evaluation of different situations in their service life. This predictive model holds the potential to be applied for analyzing diverse scenarios that utilize the acquired information about the tower. Moreover, the outcomes from the elastic damage model of the tower align well with expectations. The proposed work is carried out for a comprehensive evaluation of the structural degradation of PTs and provides valuable information on possible maintenance needs and strategies to ensure its long-term reliability and safety conditions.
