Robustness of externally and internally post-tensioned

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

Beton- und Stahlbetonbau, 103(S1), April 2008, pp. 16-22.