Detailed Condition Assessment Research Articles

Assessment and Rehabilitation of Culturally Protected Prince Rudolf Infantry Barracks in Zagreb after Major Earthquake

Recently, Zagreb was struck by a strong earthquake. Damage throughout the city was tremendous due to numerous aged and vulnerable masonry buildings. Many damaged buildings are under a certain level of cultural heritage protection. Hence, reliable assessment and effective rehabilitation are important to preserve cultural significance and mitigate risk for human life. With that in mind, the procedure of a detailed condition assessment of the building under heritage protection is presented. A detailed historical background of the case study building is shown, and observed damage and conducted in situ tests are discussed. The nonlinear static seismic analysis performed in the 3Muri software is extensively elaborated. Four different levels of reconstruction according to new Croatian law are briefly presented. Additionally, several strengthening scenarios are proposed with various strengthening techniques.

Individualized design and clinical application in 27 cases of bone transplantation

Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of bone defects in various cases for the individualized design and treatment of bone transplantation. Methods From January, 2009 to December, 2014, 27 cases of bone defect cases were treated. Each case was detailed condition assessment, according to age, defect shape, defect region on the body and so on a variety of factors, formulate detailed and reasonable treatment scheme, using single fibula, folded fibula, fibula tripodism and iliac bone morphology rules, combined with bone and soft tissue flap, in order to achieve the final best effect. Results A group of 27 cases of bone transplantation, including patients with chronic osteomyelitis, in accordance with the normal fracture healing time to healing in the 13 iliac bone, 12 fibulae, 1 tibias bone and 1 navicular bone replantation, followed up 6 months to 5 years without delay and nonunion occurred. Two years later, the 1 child case femoral shaft diameter close to normal femur. Two cases triangular supporting bone graft after 2 years by thick, triangular central formate to a circular hole. The E type deformity of the Pilon fracture was not only disappear in this case after the operation, but also walking freely. One case of lateral ankle reconstruction was without pain, no abnormal function. Seven cases with hand bone transplantation had no delayed union and hand function evaluation: 80%. One case with fibular flap blood supply problem, part of dermal ulceration, healed after change dressings. Conclusion Under the premise in master microsurgical technique and rich clinical experience, based on the purpose of the final best effect, each case different situations of patients with bone defects by a personalized microsurgical free bone transplantation in the treatment can greatly shorten the course of treatment, improve treatment effect and patient satisfaction. It is worth attention and promotion. Key words: Bone defect; Bone transplantation; Indiridualized desigh; Microsurgical technigue

Defect-Based Condition Assessment of Concrete Bridges

Reliable bridge condition assessment is considered the first step, and perhaps one of the most essential elements, of an efficient bridge management system. This consideration stems from the fact that available assessment inputs are constantly interpreted for maintenance decisions and budget allocation to the deserving, intervention-needy bridges within a region's inventory. Thus, carrying out effective bridge assessment is vital to ensure the safety and sustainability of the bridge infrastructure. In practice, the evaluation of concrete bridges is mostly conducted on the basis of visual inspection, associated with considerable uncertainty and subjectivity inherent in human judgments. Additionally, conclusions are often drawn in the absence of a thorough review of critical factors. Therefore, to circumvent the existing limitations, this study proposes a fuzzy hierarchical evidential reasoning approach for detailed condition assessment of concrete bridges under uncertainty. The essence of this framework addresses the treatment and aggregation of detected bridge defect measurements systematically to establish an enhanced platform for reliable bridge assessment. The proposed approach is facilitated by a hierarchy structure that models the several levels of a concrete bridge under assessment: bridge components, structural elements, and, most particularly, the measured defects. A belief structure is employed to grasp probabilistic uncertainty (ignorance) in the assessment, while fuzzy uncertainty (subjectivity) is processed through a set of collectively exhaustive fuzzy linguistic variables. Eventually, the Dempster–Shafer theory is used within the suggested framework for accumulating supporting pieces of evidence toward a comprehensive and educated overall condition assessment.

Gainsborough flood defence scheme: improving project delivery by reusing existing assets

This paper shows how an integrated team enabled the UK Environment Agency to deliver a more cost-effective and sustainable solution to improving protection for over 2600 properties in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, from flooding by the tidal River Trent. The team identified several opportunities to cut costs, mitigate risks and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. At the outset, a detailed condition assessment and numerical analysis of existing flood defence structures enabled many of them to be reused, even though most were originally thought to be at the end of their design life. This and other initiatives resulted in cost savings £10 million, a shorter construction period and significantly lower environmental impact.