Procedure for quality management of reclaimed concrete elements

A quality management procedure for ensuring the safe reusability of deconstructed precast concrete elements is essential for more widespread and mainstreamed reuse. The quality of reclaimed elements should be maintained throughout the process, and any reductions thereof that may have occurred must be reliably identified.

The ReCreate project researches reusing precast concrete elements, not originally designed for disassembly, through real-life deconstruction and reuse pilots in four European countries. The project covers all essential aspects of the whole reuse process, including quality management.

For reuse to be safe and to have potential for business profitability, the quality and value of precast concrete elements must be consciously managed throughout different process phases. Reusability in high-value applications can be ensured with the help of a systematic quality management procedure, which has dedicated stages for the different phases of the overall reuse process. The quality of the elements can be inadvertently reduced in each stage, and thus the possible reducing factors need to be considered individually.

This document presents the initial outline for the quality management procedure under development in the project. The key process stages are:
•Pre-deconstruction audit, where the main actions are finding out the type and number of elements, assessing their reuse potential, and gathering information for the next stages.
•Structural investigation, where the main actions are ensuring material properties of elements primarily with non-destructive (ND) or semi-destructive (SD) methods, determining the condition of the elements, and finding out the existence of possible hazardous substances.
•Deconstruction design and execution, where the determination of safe deconstruction and lifting methods is the main action, together with transportation and storage of deconstructed elements.
•Full-scale testing is carried out if the structural capacity of reclaimed elements cannot be uncovered through other means or if there is doubt about safety factors. Also newly developed retrofit connections need testing if original connections cannot be reused.
•Redesign and reassembly, where the main actions are designing the reclaimed elements according to Eurocodes and standards in force. Also, the refurbishment of the reclaimed elements must be designed.
•Product approval and authorisation is the final stage, where documents from the previous stages, together with technical drawings and calculations, will be presented to authorities to obtain official permits for reuse.

Visual investigation and thorough documentation are an essential part of each stage. Information must be carried through from stage to stage.

The current report presents the key process stages, along with a discussion on factors that may reduce the quality of salvaged elements and which must thus be addressed. By the end of the project, this outline will be developed into a best practice proposal, which will be published as a separate deliverable.