COMPARISON AND JOINT EVALUATION OF IMPORTANCE, REDUNDANCY AND ROBUSTNESS INDICATORS APPLIED TO AGING PRESTRESSED CONCRETE BRIDGES

• The use of an adequate approach to assess and design large-scale structures, such as bridges, may prevent early structure failures and provide economical solutions throughout the service life. A bridge failure can result in significant social, economic, and environmental problems; therefore, its reliability and risk management are essential. Bridges system reliability and risks are governed mainly by their redundancy and robustness, which currently are not properly included in most design code specifications. Thus, in this study, a comprehensive comparison between relevant importance, redundancy, and robustness indicators found in the literature with different levels of complexity is carried out. The indicators under analysis have been used separately in different studies; however, they have never been addressed together. Therefore, this study presents a joint evaluation of deterministic, reliability- and risk-based indicators to evaluate the differences in interpretation and information provided by the indicators. The approach is exemplified by analyzing a prestressed concrete bridge subjected to continuous degradation due to chloride ingress. A procedure is implemented to couple a metamodel-based reliability approach with a nonlinear finite element analysis (NLFEA). Based on the analysis performed, the comparison between indicators showed how different interpretations can be obtained depending on the implemented approach. This points out the necessity to create more uniform formulations and to agree on target values that can help with the redundancy and robustness interpretation.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Infrastrukturteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Infrastructure Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Importance

redundancy

robustness

prestressed concrete bridge

structural reliability

risk

corrosion.

Byggkonstruktion

Structural Engineering

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)