ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT This paper present an integrated methodology able to assess the residual safety margin of cooling towers operated by EDF in France. This methodology is built for supporting a proactive maintenance strategy after some decades of periodical tower shell ageing monitoring. The methodology includes rich monitoring data acquired at the plant: foundation settlements, material properties, shell deformation, corrosion and meteorological data... The objective of the methodology is to calculate for each tower a failure quantitative risk index based on failure analysis of reinforced concrete. It includes three modules: a mechanical module which is the core module, an ageing module considering the carbonation and corrosion and a decisional module allowing quantifying the failure risk by a scalar index.
