Quantitative Evaluation Method of Structural Safety Status of Timber Lounge Bridge with Cantilever Beams—A Case Study of the Yongqing Bridge

Abstract

ABSTRACT The timber lounge bridge with cantilever beams is a kind of bridge architectural heritage that is different from the simply supported timber beam bridge and timber arch lounge bridge in typology. It has important historical, artistic, and scientific values. For the preventive protection and repair of the timber lounge bridge with cantilever beams, this paper proposes a scientific and reliable quantitative evaluation method for its structural safety status, taking the typical timber lounge bridge with cantilever beams, Yongqing Bridge, as a case study. The evaluation consists of three stages: firstly, analyzing the typology of the timber lounge bridge with cantilever beams and recording the deterioration; secondly, establishing the evaluation system and grading criteria for the timber lounge bridge with cantilever beams; thirdly, using the finite element method to calculate the importance of the components and quantitative evaluating the structural safety status of the timber lounge bridge with cantilever beams by using the improved analytic hierarchical process (IAHP) and making the final decision. The results of this study can provide a scientific basis for quantitative evaluation of the structural safety status, preventive protection, and repair of the timber lounge bridge with cantilever beams.