Assessing Relative Risk for the Failure Modes of a Bridge Scour Countermeasure
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 5
Abstract
Widely used failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) can be very effective in assessing the relative risks of the failure modes of a bridge scour countermeasure. In this study, an approach is developed for assessing the relative risks of failure modes of a bridge scour countermeasure overcoming the limitations of risk priority numbers (RPNs) associated with individual failure modes. Appropriate application of the RPNs is established by ensuring that high values of RPNs, indicating a relatively higher risk of failure, have higher severity and occurrence ratings compared with the low RPNs, indicating low risk. Replacement of the use of RPNs with risk priority codes (RPCs) enables engineers to prioritize the risks for any severity-occurrence pair using the same scale as the ratings, unlike the RPNs. Given the simplicity and effectiveness of this technique, RPCs are shown to be preferable for assessing and prioritizing the relative risks of the failure modes of a bridge scour countermeasure.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge partial support from the Ohio Department of Transportation and from Penn State University.
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Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 5 • May 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 24, 2015
Accepted: Nov 20, 2015
Published online: Jan 22, 2016
Published in print: May 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 22, 2016
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