xviii Preface
Upon completion of this textbook, I am very grateful to many of my (former) doctoral students, and to numerous colleagues worldwide from whom
I have learned a lot. In this textbook, I have tried to summarize the stateof-the-art information on the degradation of concrete structures, and also
to give a clear and comprehensive overview of what can go wrong. By the
specialists in the various sub-domains, the information will most probably
be considered as a somewhat simplified and condensed version of the actual
scientific knowledge. Nevertheless, I am confident that within this process
of summarizing existing knowledge and presenting it to bachelor and master level students, no confusion has been introduced. On the contrary, this
textbook explains in a clear and pedagogical way the basic knowledge on
damage to concrete structures.
To all those who contributed and are still contributing to the advancement of knowledge in this domain, I am very grateful. It was my honour
and privilege to summarize a substantial part of this knowledge, hoping
to motivate bachelor and master students to learn from it, and possibly to
encourage them to contribute themselves to future developments, and to
durable and sustainable concrete structures.
Geert De Schutter
Ghent, January 2012
Upon completion of this textbook, I am very grateful to many of my (former) doctoral students, and to numerous colleagues worldwide from whom
I have learned a lot. In this textbook, I have tried to summarize the stateof-the-art information on the degradation of concrete structures, and also
to give a clear and comprehensive overview of what can go wrong. By the
specialists in the various sub-domains, the information will most probably
be considered as a somewhat simplified and condensed version of the actual
scientific knowledge. Nevertheless, I am confident that within this process
of summarizing existing knowledge and presenting it to bachelor and master level students, no confusion has been introduced. On the contrary, this
textbook explains in a clear and pedagogical way the basic knowledge on
damage to concrete structures.
To all those who contributed and are still contributing to the advancement of knowledge in this domain, I am very grateful. It was my honour
and privilege to summarize a substantial part of this knowledge, hoping
to motivate bachelor and master students to learn from it, and possibly to
encourage them to contribute themselves to future developments, and to
durable and sustainable concrete structures.
Geert De Schutter
Ghent, January 2012