Unified reliability updating of deteriorating structures based on inspection events and deterioration model parameters
Baixue Ge,Jiaqi Bai,Yiyi Chen,Sunyong Kim
Abstract
Inspection information plays an important role in time-dependent reliability assessment of deteriorating structures, and various types of inspection information can be incorporated into reliability updating. This study proposes a unified reliability-updating framework that systematically integrates both inequality-type inspection events and equality-type inspection data into the reliability analysis of deteriorating structures. Two illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework. The first example illustrates an reinforced concrete (RC) bridge subjected to a coupled corrosion-fatigue deterioration process, in which inspection outcomes for no damage detection, corrosion pit detection, and fatigue crack measurement are investigated. The second example focuses on a steel bridge dominated by fatigue crack deterioration. The effects of multiple inspection events under various inspection strategies, including inspection timing, inspection intervals, inspection order, inspection quality, and correlation among inspection outcomes, are discussed. The results show that detailed inspection data, such as measured corrosion pit depth or fatigue crack size, significantly change the updated probability of failure, whereas qualitative inspection events, such as crack detection without size measurement, provide less constraining information compared to precise quantitative measurements, although they still contribute useful information for reliability updating. The proposed framework offers practical guidance for inspection planning and life-cycle reliability management of aging infrastructures.
Key Words
corrosion; coupled corrosion-fatigue; deteriorating structures; fatigue crack; inspection; probability of failure; reliability; updating
Address
Baixue Ge, Yiyi Chen — College of Engineering, Sanda University, 201209, Shanghai, China
Jiaqi Bai — International School of Transportation, Shijiazhuang Institute of Railway Technology, 050000, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China
Sunyong Kim — Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wonkwang University, 460 Iksan dae-ro, Iksan, Republic of Korea
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