Service-Life Prediction of Deteriorating Concrete Bridges
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 124, Issue 3
Abstract
Experience has demonstrated that highway bridges are vulnerable to damage from environmental attack, such as alkali-silica reaction, corrosion, and freeze-thaw. To make rational decisions in a life-cycle cost perspective, reliable prediction of the service life of deteriorating highway bridges is necessary. To obtain an accurate insight into this problem, time-variant reliability methods have to be used. The application of these methods in the performance and safety assessment of deteriorating structures is relatively new. In this study, the reliability of reinforced concrete highway girder bridges under aggressive conditions is investigated using a time-variant series system reliability approach in which both load and resistance are time-dependent. Monte Carlo simulation is used to find the cumulative-time system failure probability. An existing reinforced-concrete T-beam bridge located near Pueblo, Colo., is investigated. The effects of various parameters such as variabilities in dead and live loads, live load occurrence rate, strength loss rate, degradation initiation time, resistance correlation, and number of girders under attack on the time-variant bridge reliability are studied. The results can be used to better predict the service life of deteriorating reinforced concrete bridges, and to develop optimal lifetime reliability-based maintenance strategies for these bridges.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Bailey, S. F. (1996). “Basic principles and load models for the structural safety evaluation of existing road bridges.”Thesis No. 1467, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland.
2.
Bridge plans for Colorado Bridge L-18-BG. (1962). Colorado Department of Transportation, Staff Bridge Inspection Branch, Denver, Colo.
3.
Chang, S. E., and Shinozuka, M.(1996). “Life-cycle cost analysis with natural hazard risk.”J. Infrastruct. Sys., ASCE, 2(3), 118–126.
4.
Crumpton, C. F., and Bukovatz, J. E. (1974). “Corrosion and Kansas bridges.”Transp. Res. Record 500, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 25–31.
5.
Enright, M. P., and Frangopol, D. M. (1996). “Reliability-based analysis of degrading reinforced concrete bridges.”Structural reliability in bridge engineering, D. M. Frangopol and G. Hearn, eds., McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc., New York, N.Y., 257–263.
6.
Enright, M. P., Frangopol, D. M., and Hearn, G. (1996). “Degradation of reinforced concrete bridges under aggressive conditions.”Materials for the new millennium, K. P. Chong, ed., Vol. 2, ASCE, 978–987.
7.
Estes, A. C. (1997). “A system reliability approach to the lifetime optimization of inspection and repair of highway bridges,” PhD thesis, Dept. of Civ., Envir., and Arch. Engrg., University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
8.
Frangopol, D. M., and Estes, A. C.(1997). “Lifetime bridge maintenance strategies based on system reliability.”Struct. Engrg. Int., Zurich, Switzerland, 7(3), 193–198.
9.
Frangopol, D. M., Lin, K.-Y., and Estes, A. C.(1997a). “Reliability of reinforced concrete girders under corrosion attack.”J. Struct. Engrg., ASCE, 123(3), 286–297.
10.
Frangopol, D. M., Lin, K. Y., and Estes, A. C.(1997b). “Life-cycle cost design of deteriorating structures.”J. Struct. Engrg., ASCE, 123(10), 1390–1401.
11.
Ghosn, M., and Moses, F.(1986). “Reliability calibration of bridge design code.”J. Struct. Engrg., ASCE, 112(4), 745–763.
12.
Lin, K.-Y. (1995). “Reliability-based minimum life cycle cost design of reinforced concrete girder bridges,” PhD thesis, Dept. of Civ., Envir., and Arch. Engrg., University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
13.
LRFD bridge design specifications. (1994). 1st Ed., American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Washington, D.C.
14.
MacGregor, J. G., Mirza, S. A., and Ellingwood, B.(1983). “Statistical analysis of resistance of reinforced and prestressed concrete members.”J. Am. Concrete Inst., 80(3), 167–176.
15.
“Management and monitoring systems: proposed rule.” (1993). Federal Register, 58 (No. 39; March 2), 12096–12125.
16.
Mori, Y., and Ellingwood, B. (1993a). “Methodology for reliability-based condition assessment: application to concrete structures in nuclear plants.”NUREG/CR-6052, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C.
17.
Mori, Y., and Ellingwood, B.(1993b). “Reliability-based service-life assessment of aging concrete structures.”J. Struct. Engrg., ASCE, 119(5), 1600–1621.
18.
Novokshchenov, V.(1989). “Condition survey of prestressed concrete bridges.”Concrete Int., 11(9), 60–68.
19.
Nowak, A. S. (1993). “Calibration of LRFD bridge design code.” Final Rep. NCHRP 12-33, Dept. of Civ. and Envir. Engrg., Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
20.
Nowak, A. S., Yamani, A. S., and Tabsh, S. W.(1994). “Probabilistic models for resistance of concrete bridge girders.”ACI Struct. J., American Concrete Institute, 91(3), 269–276.
21.
Shroff, A. C.(1988). “Evaluating a 50 year old concrete bridge.”Concrete Int., 10(5), 56–62.
22.
Structural reliability in bridge engineering. (1996). D. M. Frangopol and G. Hearn, eds., McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc., New York, N.Y.
23.
Thoft-Christensen, P., Jensen, F. M., Middleton, C. R., and Blackmore, A. (1997). “Assessment of the reliability of concrete slab bridges.”Reliability and optimization of structural systems, D. M. Frangopol, R. B. Corotis, and R. Rackwitz, eds., Pergamon, Elsevier, Oxford, U.K., 321–328.
24.
Vaysburd, A. M.(1990). “Rehabilitation of an elevated roadway bridge.”Concrete Int., 12(9), 45–50.
25.
Whiting, D. A., Stejskal, B. G., and Nagi, M. A. (1993). “Condition of prestressed concrete bridge components: technology review and field surveys.”FHWA-RD-93-037, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.
26.
Woodward, R. J. (1989). “Collapse analysis of a segmented post-tensioned concrete bridge.”Transp. Res. Record 1211, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 38–59.
27.
Yanev, B. (1996). “The management of bridges in New York City.”Structural reliability in bridge engineering, D. M. Frangopol and G. Hearn, eds., McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc., New York, N.Y., 78–89.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 124 • Issue 3 • March 1998
Pages: 309 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Mar 1, 1998
Published in print: Mar 1998
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.