May 2019
Faiz Khan our Structural Durability Engineering Specialist presented to a gathering of durability enthusiasts in Melbourne at Australasian Concrete Repair Association (ACRA) and Australasian Corrosion Association (ACA)’s joint event on “Using Chloride Levels to Predict Service Life of Structures”. Faiz spoke about how critical chloride content should be used in the assessment of new and existing structures, based on latest considerations for inclusion in fib’s Model Code 2020. It included comments and recommended values of Cc for normal reinforcing, galvanised rebar, stainless steel and steel fibres. The talk also outlined considerations which are being made in the development of this standard, which is likely to be consistent with ISO and EN standards; such as why there is such a broad distribution for chloride content levels which result in corrosion and how other factors are being considered in these standards which may impact on critical chloride levels. BCRC’s Frank Papworth is chair of the fib committee dealing with this subject and provided helpful insights onto these developments.
Apr 2019
BCRCs NSW Manager Jonathan Dyson presenting at the successful CIA Concrete Testing Seminar
March 2018
Following some tragic building fires related to aluminium composites façade panels the Australian building industry has engaged on a rigorous process of façade flammability assessment. BCRC are part of this industry led initiative and are undertaking investigations of aluminium clad composite façade materials. A series of laboratory testing of samples enables an analysis of flammability risk. This test series does not replace methods associated with Australia Standards AS 1530.1—1994 or similar, however it does give a scientifically based assessment of the risk of flammability. For information contact Marton Marosszeky on 0412446916 or contact your local BCRC state manager for a quote.
March 2018
In March Shane Connelly, BCRC’s recently appointed Victorian manager and Marton Marosszeky, managed BCRC’s exhibit at the ACE Body Corporate Management Conference in Hobart. This was a great opportunity to meet members of Australia’s third largest strata management network, and to hear current issues in the residential strata industry being discussed. One topic of great interest was the flammability problem with the use of aluminium composite claddings, this is an area in which BCRC testing is providing asset owners and their consultants an understanding of the fire risk their facades pose. Contact BCRC’s local manager in your state today for more details on how BCRC can help expertly manage durability and materials-related issues such as this.
Feb 2018
Shane Connolly has joined BCRC to manage their Victoria office. Shane has extensive experience in durability design of infrastructure projects. He will lead the BCRC team in Victoria and provide the client link to BCRC’s growing Australian team of durability consultants and their international associates.
Jan 2018
BCRC recently undertook an assessment of a structure where there was concern about cracked concrete piles in seawater and brine. A comprehensive analysis was undertaken incorporating the research finding of Carmen Andrade showing that underwater corrosion was not prevented by oxygen starvation at the cathode. The high performance of immersed concrete was more to do with a very high activation level where the reinforcement is surrounded by water at high pH. The low activation levels found on many structures is more to do with unsaturated voids at the bar. For more information contact Frank Papworth.
Oct 2017
The BCRC team will present various papers at the ICDC and Concrete 2017 conferences running in parrelel in Adelaide. Topics covered will incude maturity, insitu strength assessment, durability planning and assessment of a lithium bi-product for use in concrete.
July 2017
Frank Papworth appointed as Chair of fib Cmmmission 8 on Concrete Durability. Also appointed Joint Chair of fib Model Code 2020 Action Group 4 on durability. Model Code 2020 will include for the first time excisting structures, i.e. it will deal with assessment and repair of structures. Because of the amount of work required across a broad topic it was determined that a group drawing on all of fib and organisation beyond was required.
July 2017
BCRC are pleased to announce a significant boost to our timber durability expertise with the introduction of two new highly-experienced Australian timber experts to our team. Dr Laurie Cookson now consults with BCRC on matters relating to wood preservative performance, fungal and marine borer control, termite biology, and timber treatability. Complementing Dr Cookson’s expertise, Mr Ted Stubbersfield brings to BCRC industry-leading knowledge of weather-exposed timber. We welcome these two highly-regarded Australian timber consultants and have already started demonstrating the value of their deep expertise to our clients and their projects.
June 2017
A the fib conference in Maastricht Frank Papworth was appointment chair of Commission 8 on concrete durability. This commission has active Task Groups dealing with life cycle costs, chloride and carbonation modelling, birth certificates, corrosion protection of post tension cable and concrete repair. At the technical council meeting Frank introduced a new Task Group proposal to deal with durability design of steel fibre reinforced concrete. Frank is also joint chair of the durability action group (AG4) for Model Code 2020. Model Code 2020 will be the first time a code includes design for existing structures. AG4 is establishing many working parties to deal with the diverse range of durability topics that must be addressed
Jan 2017
BCRC has now established a Queensland office in Brisbane. This will provide local representation supported by the international expertise offered by BCRC. The office is to be headed by Robert Bell who is a civil engineer with 27 years’ experience in South Africa and Australia. This has included spending the first part of his career in the construction industry where he was involved in a number of significant projects in reinforced concrete construction, precasting, geotechnical works and piling. This was followed by 20 years in consulting where he specialised in failure analysis, forensic and diagnostic investigations, remedial projects and longer term maintenance and monitoring. We look forward to adding value to our clients and the Queensland building and construction industries.
Robert Bell
Nov 2016
Frank Papworth presented papers on ‘chloride ingress and carbonation modelling’ and ‘testing for corrosion of reinforcement in concrete’ at the fib conference in Cape Town. Both papers are co-authored by international leaders in the respective fields.
Oct 2016
Frank Papworth awarded ‘Sandy Cormack Commendation’ for paper at the New Zealand Concrete Society Annual Conference. Award for ‘original and innovative paper in the development of the knowledge and use of concrete.’
Potential field measured with the half cell technique on reinforced concrete means there are no unique assessment criteria
7th June 2016
BCRC are pleased to announce an agreement with Ingenieurburo in Munich, Germany. Ingenieurburo was started by Professor Peter Schiessel, world famous for his concrete durability research from 1970’s to present day. Ingenieurburo partners are internationally recognised for a range of concrete related services, particualrly modelling of concrete behaviour, and it is in this developing and important field that BCRC and Ingenieurburo will work on together in Australia and New Zealand.
Ingenieurburo’s manager for this agreement is Christoph Gehlen and BCRC’s is Frank Papworth. Christoph’s lead on two reports for fib demonstrate how Ingenieurburo are setting the standard for concrete testing and chloride ingress and carbonation rate modelling. fib Bulletin 59 descibes testing of existing structures using correct procedures for the number of samples required to achieve a given level of confidence in corrosion assessment. fib Bulletin 76 provides an assessment of the reliability provided by deemed to comply requirements in current national codes, including AS 3600. There are few companies that undertake full probabilistic modelling and even fewer that have sufficient background to know how to manage the input parameters. With input from Ingenieurburo BCRC can provide the latest methods for modelling concrete durability.
2nd June 2016
BCRC moved to a office at 949 Wellington Street, West Perth. The move provides greater space for this growing office and the location is convenient to BCRC’s customer base in the Perth city area.
22nd March 2016
Frank Papworth gave a presentation aimed at young corrosion engineers on ‘Repair of Reinforcement Corrosion’ to ACA in Perth. The presentation outlined the procees to follow for inspection in order to define repair requirements. It also outlined some of the pitfalls that can be made and gave examples of major errors.
17th Nov 2015
Jonathon Dyson delivered a paper detailing a new method for selecting anode systems for cathodic protection for concrete repair at the ACA annual conference on corrosion in Adelaide. Typically anodes are selected based only on the contractor or designers preference with little clear reference to the owners needs. In this BCRC approach weighted ratings are given to various client requirements and costs. The selection procedure is then worked through with the owner who will have to live with the selected system. The paper also gave details of why different sacrificial anodes are used to control ‘incipient anodes’ (halo effect) to those for cathodic protection.
Sergi’s explanation of different anode outputs for cathodic prevention for incipient anode control and cathodic protection
9th Oct 2015
Frank Papworth gave three presentations at the International Conference on Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting in Leipzig. One presentation compared the current requirements in Australia for assessment of strength in structures with the British and European practices. It showed that the Australian process is out of date and that the UK practice is probably the more statistically correct approach to take.
Dec 2014
Frank Papworth was awarded the Dr V.M. Malhotra Award for outstanding and sustained contributions to the broad area of durability of concrete. This award came as a complete surprise to Frank but was accepted as a great honour not least because of the high renown of Mohan Malhotra but also the excellence of the conference series (International Congress on Durability of Concrete) where the award is given. Frank delivered four papers at the conference largely related to the various CIA Recommended Practice notes being produced as part of a Durability Series. The 2017 ICDC will be held in Adelaide in October.
3rd May 2014
Alan Todhunter joined BCRC as Paint and Coatings Consultant. He is a materials scientist and durability technologist with 18 years’ experience.
28th Oct 2013
Jonathon Dyson joined BCRC to work in NSW. Jonathon has a Honours degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters of Engineering Science. He has 8 years professional engineering experience, 4 of which are in structural assessment/ remediation/ forensic engineering.
16-18 Oct 2013
Bob Munn of BCRC attended Concrete 2013 in Queensland. Bob Munn, Frank Papworth and Ion Dumitru of BCRC were co-authors with Mike Haigh of Talison Lithium of a paper “Development of a new high performance supplementary cementitious material – a lithium production by-product”. The paper presents BCRC testing and assessment of this new SCM which looks like having a bright future in Western Australia.
Talison Lithium Mining
Papers and Presentation – The papers included in the above list are just a sample of the papers that BCRC have presented. Most papers and presentations are available to educators on request.