Abstract:

Nowadays, an adequate design of reinforced concrete structures in relation to their durability is essential, because the aggressive agents present in the environment could produce severe damages in these structures, preventing their use under the conditions for which they were designed along part of their service life.

For that reason, it is necessary that the students of Architecture and Civil Engineering degrees acquire different skills related to the durability design of concrete structures, which are the most common type of structures in Europe and especially in Spain.

Furthermore, the new scenario created by the Bologna Declaration and the European Higher Education Area promotes the use of more practical learning and teaching methodologies. Therefore, the Architecture and Civil Engineering degrees have not been unaware of these changes, which have considerably affected the planning of their subjects. In addition to this, these teaching and learning changes have improved the preparation of graduates, which now are more trained for the current globalized labour market, where they must carry out a high amount of different practical tasks during their professional career.

In this work, it is described a learning proposal for initiating the Architecture and Civil Engineering degree students in the design related to durability of reinforced concrete elements and structures. First of all, the methodology consists of explaining to the students the concept of durability, the main processes which can produce deleterious effects in structural concrete, as well as the durability strategies and the calculation of covers according to the European and Spanish Codes related to concrete structures. After that, following a problem-based learning methodology, in which the students will have to solve several cases of durability strategy design, they will acquire the necessary skills for calculating the durability-related parameters of concrete elements and structures. Finally, this learning process of reinforced concrete focused on its durability is completed showing several real cases of study.

This proposal has been put into practice in the reinforced concrete subjects of Architecture and Civil Engineering degrees at University of Alicante (Spain). Regarding the results of teaching the durability of concrete structures with this methodology, they have been successful until now, and an adequate achievement in relation to this topic has been noted for the majority of the students in the evaluation items of the abovementioned subjects.

Keywords:

Civil Engineering, Architecture, structures, reinforced concrete, European Higher Education Area, durability.