Reliability assessment of existing reinforced concrete bridges and viaducts through proof load testing

In the assessment of existing infrastructure performing only a desk study is often not sufficient to determine the structural reliability of a bridge or viaduct. For concrete structures gathering field data by performing a proof load test offers detailed information about the structural performance. However, the relation between the magnitude...

Finite element-based reliability assessment of quay walls

While reliability methods have already been widely adopted in civil engineering, the efficiency and robustness of finite element-based reliability assessments of quay walls are still fairly low. In this paper, the reliability indices of structural and geotechnical failure modes of two real-life quay walls are determined by coupling...

Safety assessment of existing highway bridges and viaducts

The assessment of the structural safety of existing br idges and viaducts becomes increasingly important in many countries owing to an increase in traffic loads. Most existing standards, however, are developed for the design of new structures. For this reason, an assessment method for determining the actual safety level of highway bridges and...

Safety philosophy for existing structures and partial factors for traffic loads on bridges

Evaluating and upgrading existing structures becomes more and more important. For a large part of the existing infrastructure and buildings the design life has been reached or will be reached in the near future. These structures need to be reassessed in order to find out whether the safety requirements are met. Not only for new structures but...