Reliability based asset management strategy for concrete infrastructure

Li, Chun-Qing and Shao, L. (2007) Reliability based asset management strategy for concrete infrastructure. International Journal of Materials and Structural Reliability, 5 (1). pp. 13-28.

Abstract

To keep civil infrastructure operating at a high level of safety and serviceability, maintenances,such as repairs and strengthening, are necessary. It is also observed that some severely deteriorated concrete structures survive for many years without maintenance. This raises the question of why and how to maintain corrosion affected concrete structures, in particular in the climate of an increasing
scarcity of resources. The present paper attempts to formulate an asset management strategy based
on risk cost optimization for infrastructure during its whole service life. A time-dependent reliability
method is employed to determine the probability of attaining each phase of the service life. To
facilitate practical application of the formulated strategy, an algorithm is developed and
programmed in a user-friendly manner and followed by a numerical example. It is found in the paper
that there exist an optimal number of maintenances for cracking and delamination that returns the
minimum total cost for the structure in its whole life. The asset management strategy presented in the paper can help structural engineers, operators and managers make decisions with regard to repairs, strengthening and/or rehabilitation of corrosion affected concrete infrastructure

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