RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT OF ROAD BRIDGES WITH CORRODED REINFORCEMENT

The paper presents a method for reliability assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) slab bridges with corroded reinforcement. Both a reduction of cross-sectional area of the reinforcing steel and a decrease in bond strength are considered. A non-linear finite element structural model and probabilistic models for traffic loads, corrosion propagation, bond characteristics, material properties, element dimensions and reinforcement placement are used. Time-dependent bridge reliabilities are illustrated for deteriorating simple and three span RC slab bridges, for ultimate strength and serviceability limit states. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. 895164.