Seminar - Niphan Yaiaroon - The Reliability-Based Assessment of Existing Bridge Structures: The Introduction

Wednesday, August 24, 2005, 1.10 - 1.50 pm
Civil Engineering Lecture Theatre 3

Abstract

Many Highway agencies across the world are now encountering the same problems: the push for higher legal load limits together with the need for running a number of old bridges (designed a long time ago according to the design codes at that time). Most of these bridges are determined as deficient bridges because of the failure to satisfy structural requirements based on the current design standards. The analyses’ results by these codes are not realistic due to the fact that these bridges are “in-service bridges”, which are performing satisfactorily in real locations. The existing bridge structures then require more reasonable methods to evaluate their efficiency.

The presentation will concisely review some of the basic concepts in the assessment of existing bridge structures. The difference between the uncertainty in design and assessment will be described. The traditional use of normal probability paper to determine the extreme values extrapolation will be illustrated. The factors affecting live load effects will be discussed. The correlation between the dynamic load effects and the bridge surface roughness will be presented. The benefits of WIM technology in collection of unbiased truck weight data will also indicated. Finally, the research details of the speaker will be briefly introduced.