Robustness of externally and internally post-tensioned bridges

Authors

Bernard v. Radowitz, Matthias Schubert and Michael H. Faber

Abstract

The quantitative assessment of the robustness of structures has been
widely discussed in the recent decades. This paper starts out with an outline of a
recently developed risk based methodology for the quantification of the
robustness of structures which explicitly accounts for different damage states, the
characteristics of the structure in regard to redundancy and for all consequences,
direct and indirect. The framework is then applied to assess the robustness of an
externally and internally post-tensioned highway bridge designed according to
present best practice. The significance of different damage states on the
robustness is investigated and the potential of the framework is highlighted
through parameter studies. Finally different measures to increase the structural
robustness are discussed.

Published in/by

Proceedings 5th International Probabilistic Workshop, Ghent, Belgium, November 28-29, 2007, pp. 81-95.