The condition assessment of bridges considers a combination of information from different sources rendering multiple levels of assessment possible. This paper illustrates how successive condition assessment strategies increase the expected utility compared to single choice decisions through Bayesian inference. Multiple levels of assessment allow for additional possibilities for obtaining structural health information and updating one’s beliefs about structural condition. Thus, more informed decision-making is possible with respect to the gain in accuracy versus the costs of the assessment options. The paper aims to introduce how the successive approach can be implemented and in which scenarios it provides an increase in expected utility in comparison to one instant decision. To highlight this, a few pedagogical numerical examples are provided.

中文翻译：

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进行桥梁维护的知情连续状态评估

桥梁的状态评估考虑了来自不同来源的信息的组合，从而可以进行多种评估。本文说明了相继的条件评估策略与通过贝叶斯推理的单项选择决策相比如何提高了预期效用。多级评估为获取结构健康信息和更新人们对结构状况的信念提供了更多可能性。因此，就准确性的提高相对于评估方案的成本而言，更明智的决策是可能的。本文旨在介绍如何实现连续方法，以及在哪种情况下与一个即时决策相比，它可以提高预期效用。为了突出这一点，提供了一些教学数字示例。