Seismic time-dependent resilience assessment of aging highway bridges incorporating the effect of retrofitting

Abstract

Bridges are one of the most critical components of transportation networks, which are highly vulnerable due to exposure to natural hazards. In addition, multiple degradation mechanisms can considerably affect the functionality of highway bridges during their service life. Therefore, accumulated damage could also arise continuously because of seismic loading and structural deterioration, which consequently can change system resilience over its life-cycle. This study presents a probabilistic methodology to systematically evaluate and develop the time-dependent seismic resilience curves for Reinforced Concrete (RC) bridges under chloride attacks. In this regard, different jacketing materials with varying thicknesses are chosen for retrofitting purposes. In each case, the time-dependent seismic fragility curves (four damage states) for calculating the time-dependent seismic resilience curves are established through Probabilistic Seismic Demand Models (PSDMs) by performing Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA). Finally, the time-dependent seismic resilience curves are evaluated based on the time-dependent seismic fragility curves using the restoration function for all the retrofitting strategies by considering the effect of structural deterioration over time. The results indicate that aging, earthquake intensities, and retrofitting strategies undeniably affect the time-variant seismic resilience of bridges, which is helpful for the long-term safety and reliability of bridges.