PSI - Issue 84

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M. Giglio et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2026) 000–000

10 © 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Conference Keywords: Monitoring; Corrosion; RFID; Maintenance. Martina Giglio et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 84 (2026) 9–16

1. Introduction In recent years, the corrosion of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures has become a critical issue, as it directly affects the durability and service life of civil infrastructures. The degradation of prestressing steel can compromise structural safety and requires an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms governing corrosion initiation and propagation, as well as the development of suitable maintenance and rehabilitation strategies. Consequently, the maintenance phase of existing structures has gained increasing importance, driving the demand for reliable diagnostic and monitoring tools by Bertolini et al. (2013). In this context, non-destructive testing (NDT) and monitoring techniques have experienced significant growth, as they allow structural assessment without compromising the integrity or serviceability, and represent the first line of assessment before any intrusive inspection by Zaki et al. (2015) and by Vogel and Schellenberg (2012). Visual inspections remain the first and the fundamental step for evaluating the structure’s condition, providing preliminary information, such as surface defects or quantifying corrosion-induced expansion. The evolution of structural assessment is strongly supported by national and international regulatory and strategic frameworks that increasingly recognize the crucial role of non-destructive testing methods in ensuring infrastructure safety and promoting predictive maintenance strategies. At the international level, standards such as Eurocode 2 by CEN (2004) prioritize durability and design control through control of environmental classes, concrete composition, and reinforcement protection, encouraging NDTs as complementary tools to verify the actual condition of existing structures. While the fib Model Code 2020 by fib (2013) encourage the use of continuous or periodic monitoring data to calibrate structural degradation models, facilitating the transition toward a predictive, risk-based management approach. This effort is complemented by dedicated ASTM standards by ASTM International (2017), ASTM International (2016) and AST International (2017), such as ASTM C876 (half-cell potential), ASTM G109 (corrosion evaluation) and ASTM C597 (ultrasonic pulse velocity), that provide standardized procedures for laboratory and in situ testing, for ensuring the reliability and comparability of corrosion and NDT measurements across various contexts. This trend is mirrored in the Italian national context, where technical instructions from CNR (“Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche”) by CNR (2004) and CNR (2013) and guidelines from UNI (“Ente Italiano di Normazione”) by UNI (2016), such as the UNI/TR 11634:2016 on Structural Monitoring, mandate diagnostic and control procedures as essential components for structural safety. Furthermore, operational guidelines from ANAS by ANAS (2019) and directives from CSLP (“Consiglio Superiore dei Lavori Pubblici”) by CSLP (2020) systemically promote the use of advanced monitoring tools for the safety assessment and management of critical road infrastructure. This continuous drive toward implementing advanced methods is also strongly observed in other European operational bodies, such as the French Ministry of ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion and its associated organizations by Université Gustave Eiffel, which actively promotes diagnostic techniques for infrastructure evaluation. Although specific national regulations may not yet explicitly govern emerging wireless technologies like RFID, this comprehensive regulatory and operation framework provides a solid technical and strategic foundation that motivates the development and implementation of advanced, scalable methodologies for corrosion monitoring in civil structures. The inspection of poste-tensioned (PT) tendons in prestressed concrete structures places significant limitations on the use of NDTs. The adoptions of the electrochemical techniques including the Open Circuit Potential (OCP), the Linear Polarization Resistance (LPR) by Andrade and Martínez (2010), the Galvanostatic Pulse Method (GPM) and the Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) by Mietz and Fischer (2007), which allows to measure electrochemical potential, corrosion currents, or electrochemical impedance at the steel-concrete interface, require the access to the wires or strands inside the PT ducts. Acoustic-based techniques (from acoustic emission to acoustic tomography, thermal (e.g. thermography) and electromagnetic (e.g. georadar) methods allow to assess only the consequences of corrosion, such as wires breaks, cracking, delamination and material loss by Zaki et al. (2015), by Vogel and Schellenberg (2012), by Andrade and Martínez (2010), by Permeh and Lau (2022) and by Mietz and Fischer