Reliability Determination of Bridge Span Based on Structural and Functional Approaches

Despite measures taken to improve the quality of design, construction and operation of bridge structures, failures in the structural elements of bridges do not decrease. This is largely due to the intensified traffic flow and aggressive effect of chemically-active atmospheric gases and deicing materials on structural materials. However, regulatory documents on the road and bridge design do not take these factors into account to justify their reliability and durability and suggest to use safety margin coefficients based on retrospective statistical data on traffic and bridge operation. The result is a contradiction between ensuring the bridge safety and scientific and methodological base for solving these issues. It is thus necessary to develop a method for predicting the bridge reliability, which takes into account the joint operation of its structural elements, stochastic nature, dynamic parameters of traffic flow, and a destructive effect of aggressive environment on the bridge during its service life.

Purpose: The development of a methodological approach to the assessment and prediction of reliability indicators of reinforced concrete bridge spans.

Methodology: The proposed method to determine reliability indicators of bridge spans is based on the mathematical apparatus for structural reliability functions of complex systems, determining the diffusion of liquids and gases and simulating the span operation.

Research findings: The distribution density functions of superstructures obtained during the method implementation, taking into account the stochastic nature of the composition and intensity of traffic, technological processes of construction, maintenance of bridge structures and materials used, natural and climatic factors, allow to predict the duration of the inter-repair service of bridges, develop organizational, technical and constructive solutions to improve the bridge safety.

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