Socio-economically sustainable civil engineering infrastructures by optimization

Authors

Rüdiger Rackwitz, Albrecht Lentz and Michael H. Faber

Abstract

Sustainability is an important requirement for civil engineering infrastructures, technically and financially. The financial aspects are discussed. It is proposed to select a design and maintenance strategy where structures are systematically renewed by reconstruction or repair. An appropriate objective function for cost-benefit analyses based on a renewal model is established. An intergenerationally acceptable discounting scheme is proposed. As infrastructures also involve risk to human life and limb a socio-economic acceptability criterion to be added as a constraint to cost-benefit analyses is derived. Various renewal models for deteriorating structures including multiple failure modes are discussed. The paper includes various examples illustrating the developed theory.

Published in/by

Structural Safety, 27(3), July 2005, pp. 187-229.