Reliability Acceptance Criteria for Deteriorating Elements of Structural Systems
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 12
Abstract
A systematic approach to determining reliability-based acceptance criteria for deteriorating elements in structural systems is proposed as a basis for calibration of safety factors in codes and standards and for verifying acceptability of inspection and maintenance strategies for specific structures. The goal is to establish deterioration acceptance criteria for the elements of a structural system in compliance with criteria formulated for the system. Existing methods significantly overestimate the deterioration reliability of redundant structural systems because they neglect the joint effect of deterioration failures of different elements. To more realistically capture the load-sharing behavior of deteriorating redundant structural systems, it is proposed to establish deterioration acceptance criteria on the basis of easily computable, idealized structural systems, which are calibrated to the characteristics of the real structure. The approach is validated on an example structural system and is found to represent a significant improvement over current methods. The paper concludes with a study of the main factors influencing acceptance criteria of deterioration reliability.
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Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) through grant NSFPA002-111428.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 12 • December 2011
Pages: 1573 - 1582
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 27, 2008
Accepted: Apr 18, 2011
Published online: Apr 20, 2011
Published in print: Dec 1, 2011
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