Nowadays, multiple constraints imposed by economic, social and environmental considerations undergo maintenance planning optimization into a major challenge to designers, owners and users of infrastructure. This study focuses on the management of reinforced concrete (RC) structures placed in marine atmospheres. Under these exposure conditions, chloride penetration generates corrosion of the reinforcing bars reducing the RC durability. Therefore, modeling the deterioration process as well as the maintenance actions carried out during the operational life becomes paramount for the formulation of a sustainable maintenance strategy. The main objective of this thesis is to develop a new methodology for optimizing the performance of maintenance strategies for corroding RC structures. Contrary to classical management of infrastructure that is mainly based on economic constraints, this study proposes an extension to environmental criteria in view to find sustainable maintenance solutions. The management model combines: a comprehensive model of chloride penetration, Markov processes and decision theory. The uncertainty related to material properties, model and environmental actions as well as the effect of imperfect inspections are also integrated to the model. Given that a sustainable maintenance strategy should minimize costs and environmental impact, a multi-criteria approach for decision-making is also implemented. Several numerical examples and real case studies illustrate the aforementioned points throughout the manuscript. In general, it is concluded that the proposed methodology can be useful to improve the environmental performance and the costs of a given strategy by ensuring appropriate levels of serviceability and safety.
