Niphan Yaiaroon

BE (Civil Engineering) Kasetsart University, THAILAND
MEngSc (Structural Engineering) (UNSW)

Postgraduate Research Student
Centre for Advanced Structural Engineering

Research project - The Reliability-based Assessment of Existing Bridges

Supervisor: A/Prof Stuart Reid
Associate Supervisor: Prof Yui-Wing Mai

Bridge is the fundamental part of the highway network and in several cases was determined as the obstacle for increasing in mass transportation by the road transport industry. In Australia, as well as other countries, the design loads for many in-service bridges were less than the current legal loads, and some of them were determined as deficient bridges based on the present standard used. The road authorities throughout the world now try to take advantage in full capacities of existing bridges and at the same time provide the efficient standards to account for the increasing loads in the future.

The objectives of my research topic are to develop: the improved probabilistic load models and dynamic load amplification factors with different types of trucks and bridges, the procedures to take account of the effective proof-loading based on service history, and probabilistic procedures to assess strength and safety of bridges, which do not comply with standards.

The project is mainly theoretical, which involves analysis of field data, field measurements as well as computational simulation.

Bridge