Abstract
This article provides a comprehensive procedure for the structural performance evaluation and life-cycle cost (LCC) analysis of reinforced concrete highway bridges located in extreme chloride-laden environments. An integrated computational methodology is developed to simulate the chloride intrusion and to estimate the corrosion initiation time. The effects of various influential parameters on the chloride diffusion process are examined and the changes in geometry and material properties of structural members are calculated over the entire life of the bridge. In order to evaluate the global structural degradation due to the corrosion mechanisms, an inventory of bridges with different structural attributes are investigated. The extent of capacity loss is calculated using the moment-curvature and nonlinear static (pushover) analysis. Results of this study are then utilised to find the LCC of bridges. Different inspection and maintenance strategies are considered to minimise the total LCC, which includes the initial construction cost, inspection and maintenance costs and service failure costs. The proposed approach indicates the inspection and maintenance intervals in a way that the inspection and maintenance costs are optimised while the safety of the bridge is ensured.
Published Version
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