Author(s):
Keßler, S. ; Limongelli, M. P. ; Apostolidi, E. ; Andrade, C. ; Bartolac, M. ; Braml, T. ; Cigada, A. ; Duprat, F. ; Gentile, C. ; Kainz, C. ; Küttenbaum, S. ; Lehky, D. ; Maack, S. ; Matos, José C. ; Novák, D. ; Rasol, M. ; Santos, L. ; Shan, J. ; Sousa, Hélder S. ; Torrent, R. ; Verstrynge, E. ; Zimmert, F. ; Ballio, F. ; Bień, J. ; Chatzi, E. ; Darò, P. ; Elfgren, L. ; Górski, M. ; Keuser, M. ; Kuzawa, M. ; Ley, J. ; Mancini, G. ; Mendler, A. ; Oliveira, S. ; Ryjáček, P. ; Schmidt, F. ; Sousa, H. ; Strauss, A. ; Ueda, T. ; Zabel, V.
Date: 2023
Persistent ID: https://hdl.handle.net/1822/89294
Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Description
[Excerpt] The through-life management of our constantly ageing infrastructure is a basic requirement in order to ensure their structural safety and serviceability. Each structure experiences deterioration processes with time leading to a decrease of structural safety and serviceability. The design of new structures considers the expected deterioration for a defined period, the design service life. However, a frequent survey of structural safety controlling structural condition should be mandatory and a maintenance plan should be an integral part of the design. In addition, many structures have exceeded their design service life already or are very close to it leading to an increasing demand for condition assessment. On the one hand, assumptions made during design are not valid any more due to change of the loads, e.g., increasing traffic loads in terms of number and weights. On the other hand, design codes evolved over time in such a way that existing structures do not comply with today’s standards. In all these cases, the through-life management is an important tool to maintain the accessibility of existing structures with known reliability. [...]
