Abstract
In the past few years, there has been an increasing societal and industrial demand for the reliable assessment and design of structural systems with service-life criteria of at least several decades. The life cycle characterisation of engineering structures in terms of an anticipated service life remains a significant aspect of sustainability in the construction industry. This requires special attention to the definition of structural performance under various actions, and to the implemented engineering materials and methods as well as to the inverse identification and monitoring of structural conditions. Subsequently, the focus remains on the development of a holistic performance-based design approach for new and existing structures and infrastructures. This paper presents the fundamental reliability concepts of performance-based design, with a focus on lifetime assessment. Case studies from actual structural components’ design are used to verify the proposed methodology and indicate the significance of quality assurance in the lifetime assessment of engineering structures. We also confirmed that reliability and quality assurance criteria are strongly connected. Therefore, a methodology for quality-based service life assessment is presented and elaborated in the case studies.
Highlights
Academic Editor: LuísThe inclination of the engineering society towards sustainable industries is evident in many facets of modern life and business
The present study aims to confirm an interconnection of life-cycle reliability measures with elements of quality control (QC) and quality assurance by elaborating on the principles of reliability as applied to structural engineering problems
The second example discusses the installation quality of bonded anchors in concrete. These examples are considered by the authors as suitable for demonstration and relevant to practice, without excluding the fact that the basic principles and tools apply to other types of materials, limit state functions and damage processes
Summary
The inclination of the engineering society towards sustainable industries is evident in many facets of modern life and business. The QC plan specifies all activities and tools needed to ensure the quality requirements related to the investigated performance aspects (safety, serviceability, etc.) It can define the type and quantity of data necessary to assess the performance indicators of the structure or its individual components at the time of data collection and in the future. These examples are considered by the authors as suitable for demonstration and relevant to practice, without excluding the fact that the basic principles and tools apply to other types of materials, limit state functions and damage processes The results of these demonstrative analyses are discussed in the final section of the paper, where the main conclusions of the study are highlighted, and practical recommendations are provided in relation to the sensitivity of a structure’s reliability in terms of quality issues and the significance of the construction phase on the whole-life performance of a structure
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