• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.4
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• pp.399-409
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• 2024

Assessment of existing concrete bridges is a challenge for owners. It has greater economic impact when compared to designing new bridges. When using conventional linear analyses, judgment of the engineer is required to understand the behavior of redundant structures after the first element in the structural system reaches its ultimate capacity. The alternative is to use a predictive tool such as advanced nonlinear finite element analyses (ANFEA) to assess the overall structural behavior. This paper proposes a new reliability framework for the assessment of existing bridge structures using ANFEA. A general framework defined in previous works, accounting for material uncertainties and concrete model performance, is adapted to the context of the assessment of existing bridges. A "shifted" reliability problem is defined under the assumption of quasi-deterministic dead load effects. The overall exercise is viewed as a progressive pushover analysis up to structural failure, where the actual safety index is compared at each event to a target reliability index.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.179-184
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• 1999

In this study, a method for damage assessment of existing structures is suggested using system identification approach. The natural frequencies of damaged structures are utilized to determine the size of damage. The SUMT algorithm is used to minimize error of the criterion function. The structural analysis is performed by using finite element method. Numerical examples are carried out to verify the validity of the proposed method and its computational procedures. And damage estimation of PSC beam is performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. From the results, it is found that the proposed SI method can be applied to estimate damage in existing structures accurately and rapidly.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.4
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• pp.481-494
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• 2020

In this paper, a probability-based procedure to evaluate the performance of existing RC structures exposed to seismic and fire actions is presented. The procedure is demonstrated with reference to an existing old school building, located in Italy. The vulnerability assessment of the building highlights deficiencies under both static and seismic loads. Retrofit operations are designed to achieve the seismic safety. The idea of the work consists in assessing the performance of the existing and retrofitted building in terms of both the seismic and fire resistance. The seismic retrofit and fire resistance upgrading follow different paths, depending on the specific configuration of the building. A good seismic retrofit does not entail an improving of the fire resistance and vice versa. The goal of the current work is to study the variation of response due to the uncertainties considered in records/fire curves selection and to carry out the assessment of the studied RC structure by obtaining fragility curves under the effect of different records/temperature. The results show the fragility curves before and after retrofit operations and both in terms of seismic performance and fire resistance performance, measuring the percent improving for the different limit states.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1998.04b
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• pp.703-706
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• 1998

Primarily, to evaluate the structural condition assessment of concrete structures, percentile strength of concrete in concrete structures should be found out. This study aims to establish the evaluation techniques for concrete strength in existing concrete structures considering the concrete quality and reliability. The results are as follows ; 1. Percentile strength of concrete in concrete structures can be estimated from following strength equation. $$f_p=f_{mea} - {\lambda}_pS_s$$2. For the calibration of above percentile strength equation with proposed codes or specifications, following sample size based on ASTM E122 can be applied.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.414-421
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• 1998

The content of this paper consists of two related subjects. One is the assessment of damages in the existing structure and the other is the evaluation of seismic capacity of the structure with damage. A method is presented for damage assessment of existing structures using the modal data measured at limited points by the inverse medal perturbation technique. For efficient damage assessment, the number of the unknown probable damaged members is reduced for each damage identification by grouping the members in the large structure. The aseismic capacity is evaluated for the structure using the results of damage assessment. An example analysis is carried out for a building structure subjected to different earthquake excitations.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.365-375
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• 2017

Seismic risk management has two main technical aspects: to recommend the construction of high-performance buildings and other structures using earthquake-resistant designs or evaluate existing ones, and to prepare emergency plans using realistic seismic scenarios. An overview of seismic risk assessment methodologies in Croatia is provided with details regarding the components of the assessment procedures: hazard, vulnerability and exposure. For Croatia, hazard is presented with two maps and it is expressed in terms of the peak horizontal ground acceleration during an earthquake, with the return period of 95 or 475 years. A standard building typology catalogue for Croatia has not been prepared yet, but a database for the fourth largest city in Croatia is currently in its initial stage. Two methods for earthquake vulnerability assessment are applied and compared. The first is a relatively simple and fast analysis of potential seismic vulnerability proposed by Croatian researchers using damage index (DI) as a numerical value indicating the level of structural damage, while the second is the Macroseismic method.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1992.10a
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• pp.141-147
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• 1992

This study is directed for the development of a computer aided safety assessment system for agricultural irrigation structures, The developed system is composed of four subsystems that incorporate database, structural analysis, safety assessment, and postprocess, which are made to be interfaced systematically. It is developed in the user-friendly menu driving form with pull-down type interaction on a personal computer. The main algorithm of safety assessment of deteriorated structures is a rational rating system based on the reliability method. From this study, it may be stated that the proposed rating and safety assessment system provide an effective tool and thus it can be widely used in practice for the assessment of safety and load carrying capacity of existing deteriorated or damaged agricultural irrigation structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.163-182
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• 2014

Safety factors proposed in codes CEB, B.A.E.L 91 and EUROCODE 1 cover a great number of uncertainties; making them inadequate for the assessment of existing structures. Suitable safety factors are established using a probabilistic assessment, once real dimensions, materials strength and existing structures deterioration mechanisms are taken into account. This paper presents a calibration method for safety factors using a typical set of RC bridges in France. It considers the principal stages of corrosion provoked by $CO_2$ and $Cl^-$ penetration and threshold indexes (${\beta}_0$) for existing structures. Reliability indexes are determined by the FORM method in the calibration method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.631-644
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• 2014

Seismic assessment and retrofitting of existing structure is a complicated work that typically requires more sophisticated analyses than performing a new design. Before the implementation of a Code for seismic design of buildings (GBJ 11-89), not enough attention has been paid on seismic performance of structures and a great part of the existing reinforced concrete structures built in China have been poorly designed according to the new version of the same code (GB 50011-2010). This paper presents a case study of seismic assessment of a non-seismically designed reinforced concrete building in China. The structural responses are evaluated using the nonlinear static procedure (the so-called pushover analysis), which requires its introduction within a process that allows the estimation of the demand, against which the capacity is then compared with. The capacity of all structural members can be determined following the design code. Based on the structural performance, suitable retrofitting strategies are selected and implemented to the existing system. The retrofitted structure is analyzed again to check the effectiveness of the rehabilitation. Different types of retrofitting strategy are discussed and classified according to their complexity and benefits. Finally, a proper intervention methodology is utilized to upgrade this typical low-rise non-ductile building.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.55-72
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• 2012

Precast-cast insitu concrete bridge construction is widely practiced for small to medium span structures. These bridges consist of precast pre-stressed concrete beams of various cross-sections with a cast in-situ reinforced concrete slab. The connection between the beams and the slab is via shear links often included during the manufacturing process of the beams. This form of construction is attractive as it provides for standardisation, reduced formwork and construction time. The assessment of the integrity of shear connectors in existing bridges is a major challenge. A procedure for assessment of shear connectors based on vibration testing and finite element model updating is proposed. The technique is applied successfully to a scaled model bridge model and an existing bridge structure.