The homogeneity of standard Italian railway stations in terms of period of construction (second half of the 19th century), architectural and structural features, typical dimensions and morphology (mostly depending on expected number of passengers) allows the identification of building typologies, with an expected similar behaviour under seismic actions. Four typologies of standard railway stations

As dramatically confirmed by the recent earthquakes in Amatrice and Visso in 2016, and by the collapse of a road bridge along the Savona-Torino highway in 2019, Italy and all its constructions and infrastructures passing through its territory are potentially exposed to considerable seismic and hydrogeological risks. Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), in its role of Infrastructure Manager, is responsible

Pretensioned prestressed concrete (PC) girders are prefabricated in series to reduce cost and facilitate fabrication efficiency. However, a consensus of the calculation of prestress friction losses at deviators is not achieved yet. The existing calculation methods assume a perfect contact between prestressing tendon and deviator, which is inconsistent with observed imperfect contact in real-life practices

Characteristic cracks in skewed bridges, detrimental to service performance, form in deck acute corners and run diagonally across deck span. This paper presents the relationship between skew and deck cracks, investigates crack mitigation strategies and documents changes in live load distribution caused by cracks. Finite element analyses of in-service steel and concrete girder bridges were performed

It is widely recognized that reliability-based optimization methodologies are rational and promising tools to perform the life-cycle management (LCM) of civil engineering structures. In order to realize the optimal design and maintenance of asphalt pavement, a comprehensive reliability-based optimization methodology considering the life-cycle cost (LCC) is proposed in this paper. Considering the powerful

This paper delivers a reliability-based method for the assessment of the elastic modulus (EM) of concrete in simply supported girders from dynamic identification. The correlation between the natural frequencies of the first bending modes and the concrete EM supports the use of the first natural frequency as a predictor of the EM value, which is a well-acknowledged indicator of the state of concrete

A number of 1/5 scale normal concrete (NC), reinforced concrete (RC), Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) and reinforced ECC (R/ECC) tunnel lining specimens were tested under vertical loading applied at the mid-top of the crown and the mechanical behaviours were analysed. Four lining FE models were established and compared in detail with the test data. Subsequently, numerical analysis of NC lining

Modelling the performance of interdependent infrastructure systems paves the way for strategic infrastructure disaster risk management. The nature of different systems makes it hard to model every system at the same resolution. Modelling different systems at different resolutions can also reduce the computational time for more efficient infrastructure resilience planning, especially when large-scale

Many ‘as-built’ reinforced concrete (RC) bridge piers are suffering from insufficient flexural rebars in China. A novel retrofitting technique was proposed to enhance their seismic-resistant capacities, by enclosing the plastic hinge zone with the ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) jacket. Three RC piers were loaded cyclically, with two of them retrofitted with the UHPC jackets of 400 and 850 mm

This article uses extracted bridge mode shapes to detect bridge damage, including both local damage such as that due to a bridge strike and global damage such as that due to foundation scour. Typically, only one accelerometer is required, which is mounted on an instrumented vehicle passing over the test bridge. This concept is referred to as ‘drive-by’ bridge health monitoring. For a simple vehicle/bridge

Wind effects on high-rise buildings have always been a major concern in structural engineering. This paper investigates the wind effects on a 420-meter-tall building located in Hong Kong by full-scale measurements and wind tunnel testing. Using a structural health monitoring system installed in the building, wind fields and structural responses were collected during 15 typhoons from 2008 to 2017 with

The uplift pressures change the stress state of the rock mass foundation in a coupled hydromechanical process and may compromise the dam stability. Consequently, dam safety regulations specify the maximum values of the hydraulic conductivity and uplift pressures that can usually only be fulfilled after the execution of seepage and uplift control measures. The design of waterproofing and drainage systems

The aim of this work is to present a method for calculating seismic fragility function of urban road network. In this paper, urban road system is simplified to a planar network. The spatial correlation of seismic ground motions is considered. The damage probability of network edge is determined by the fragility function of single road section. By repeating simulation, a large number of samples of post-earthquake

As the temporal and spatial resolution of monitoring data drastically increases by advances in sensing technology, structural health monitoring applications reach the thresholds of big data. Deep neural networks are ideally suited to use large representative training datasets to learn complex damage features. One such real-time deep learning platform that was developed to solve damage detection and

This study aims to investigate the effects of correlation of random variables between the adjacent components on time variant system reliability of corroded pipelines. The system reliability analysis is conducted using a combination of Latin Hypercube Sampling and Cholesky decomposition methods for four different failure modes (Composite (C), Corrosion Perforation (CP), Local Burst (LB) and Rupture

Floods, bridge scour, and flood-associated loads have caused over sixty percent of bridge failures in the U.S. Current practices for the vulnerability assessment of instream bridges under the effect of such flood largely rely on qualitative methods, such as visual inspection, without considering uncertainties associated with structural behaviors and flood loads. Recently, numerical methods have been

When a cable-stayed bridge is subjected to strong ground motions during an earthquake, the vibration of the tower column is much stronger and more severe in the transverse direction than the longitudinal direction, due to the lateral restriction between the tower and the main girder. To address this issue, the current seismic design of cable-stayed bridge recommends that a larger reinforcement ratio

Previously, it was nearly impossible to use raw time series sensory signals for structural health monitoring due to the inherent high dimensionality of measured data. However, recent developments in deep learning techniques have overcome the need of complex preprocessing in time series data. This study extends the applicability of four prominent deep learning algorithms: Multi-Layer Perceptron, Long

In this study, the performance data from 30 inspectors evaluating 147 specimens with fatigue cracks in representative in-situ conditions were analysed to identify the role of human factors in bridge inspection. Two performance measures, the percentage of correct detections (detection rate) and the number of false calls, were considered. The variability in both performance measures was large, and only

This paper presents a machine learning approach for detecting structural stiffness changes of civil engineering structures considered as dynamical systems, using only an experimental database constituted of a small number of records related to the experimental first eigenfrequency of the structure and a set of measured temperatures. Since the number of records in the experimental database is assumed

Seismic risk analysis of spatially distributed systems requires considering a large number of earthquake scenarios. Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) technique is a common and straightforward method to generate these scenarios. However, all of the generated scenarios are not necessary for seismic risk analysis. The current study proposes a two-step method for reducing the number of redundant scenarios and

The wind-induced damages on quayside container cranes happen occasionally in recent years, which is mostly sliding and overturning caused by transient gusty wind (particularly the “short-rise-time gust”). Therefore, studies on the stochastic dynamic transient gusty wind effect on the sliding and overturning of quayside container cranes are required. Based on aerodynamic data obtained from wind tunnel

Recently, explosions, collisions, and fires have occurred frequently around the world due to terror attacks, and impact accidents. Particularly, since the 9.11 terror attack, public anxiety heightened due to lack of safety in our society. The incidents can be viewed as examples of possible extreme loading scenarios that can occur in structures and infrastructures. Among all of structures and infrastructures

Effective life-cycle management of deteriorating structures should be based on an accurate and reliable damage propagation prediction model under uncertainty. Appropriate updating with inspected information can decrease errors between the detected and predicted damage and finally improve the accuracy and reliability of life-cycle management of a deteriorating structure. This paper presents an approach

This study investigates the seismic life-cycle cost of aging highway bridges under chloride exposure when subjected to multiple main shock earthquake events along the design lifetime of the structure. While chloride induced corrosion manifests as a continuous deterioration process, earthquake occurrences are typically intermittent. Although relatively weak seismic events that induce none-to-minor bridge

The role of signal-based nonlinear system identification methods for the rapid post-earthquake damage assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge piers is explored. Experimental data from the shaking table tests of six RC columns with and without corrosion damage are used as benchmark data. The specimens are excited under three different ground motions with different time-series characteristics,

Leakage is one of the main sources of water loss in Water Distribution Networks (WDNs). Although a water utility intends to reduce the leakage to the minimum possible level, considering the high leakage reduction costs, an economic perspective of leakage control should be taken into account. In this paper, a field-data based methodology for estimating the Short-Run Economic Level of Leakage (SR-ELL)

Convergence monitoring is of great importance to evaluate the tunnel health condition. This paper introduces a real-time convergence monitoring system of shield tunnel with straight joints based on wireless tilt sensors. Wireless tilt sensors have the advantages of real-time monitoring, flexibility and ease of installation, no interruption to tunnel operation and no demand of inter-visibility. A model

As an important long-term task in the field of dam engineering, the maintenance and reinforcement (MAR) are of great significance for ensuring the safety of the project and prolonging the service period of the project. The MAR of large-scale and long-term projects also requires high costs. In order to reduce the consumption of funds and improve the utilisation of resources, the whole life cycle cost

The static bridge weigh-in-motion (BWIM) systems are mostly based on strain measurements and are particularly suited for stiff short-span bridges. Recently, the BWIM systems based on acceleration measurements are developed for long-span bridges because of the portability and low-cost of accelerometers as compared to strain gauges. Although, these BWIM systems can estimate the gross vehicle weights

Transportation network is of vital importance for city maintaining and reconstruction especially after extreme events. Decisions on the restoration plan of transportation network have to be made in a short period after event, but taking into account various decision-making criteria and resource constraints. This paper explains the essential problems in network restoration scheduling, and presents a

This study aims to experimentally and analytically investigate the effectiveness of non-uniform wrapping on circularised reinforced concrete (RC) columns under axial and flexural loads. Sixteen specimens including four square and twelve circularised RC specimens were prepared and tested. Specimens of the first group were square RC specimens. Specimens of the second and third groups were circularised

A time-variant random degradation model for assessing the flexural capacity of tunnel lining is proposed. By using the double reinforced beam model, the governing equation of moment capacity for tunnel lining is established with the consideration of the reduction of the steel area and the concrete-steel bond strength. Moreover, both carbonation penetration and chloride corrosion of lining are incorporated

After the ground motion, a large number of columns remain intact and can be retrofitted and reused. In this paper, to explore the effects of the loading scenario, predamage level and strengthening measures on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) columns, seven predamaged specimens strengthened with high-performance ferrocement laminate (HPFL) and bond steel plate (BSP) were tested. The

In this study, shaking table tests were performed on a 1/8-scaled test model equipped with and without a tuned mass damper (TMD) to validate the effectiveness of TMD on a transmission tower under seismic excitations and to investigate its damping mechanism. Based on the experimental results, the vibration control performance of TMD and the effects of earthquake characteristics were analysed. The results

The main purpose of this work is to develop a reliability analysis of concrete cover against the ingress of airborne chloride ions, and then to use it to determine the appropriate thicknesses of concrete cover or the water–cement or water–binder ratios of concrete (W/C or W/B) for meeting a reliability requirement. At first, for determining the corrosion occurrence time of reinforcing bars embedded

An experimental research study was carried out to investigate the life-time performance of unbounded Steel Reinforced Elastomeric Bearings (SREB), which are designed and used for service limit state in bridges, subjected to seismic demands. Such behaviour was investigated using 13 full-scale specimens in three phases; (1) effects of long-term service, namely the long term presence of vertical loading

In recent years, for the reinforcement of concrete structures, fibre-reinforced polymers have been extensively employed, thus enhancing the structural properties of the reinforced materials. This paper presents a pre-stressing strengthening method for the confinement of large-scale circular concrete columns. The axial compressive behaviour of confined columns was tested and analysed. The experimental

Railway bridges are a critical part of the railway infrastructure system and the majority of these bridges are approaching their expected design lifespan. These bridges need to be maintained effectively. This article proposes a damage detection framework for truss railway bridges based on operational strain responses. The method relies on principal component analysis (PCA) of strain responses of the

Bridge condition rating is a crucial variable used for prioritisation of bridge needs in bridge management systems (BMSs). At present, bridge rating is predominantly based on visual inspections. A practical method incorporating non-destructive testing (NDT) results for rating bridges in a BMS is not available. In this study, an integrated rating method for reinforced concrete bridges based on both

Abstract Transportation infrastructure is of fundamental importance and must be regularly assessed to ensure its safety and serviceability. The assessment of ageing reinforced concrete bridge stock may need to consider corrosion and cracks, as the likelihood of deterioration increases with age. This work accordingly investigates the incorporation of pre-existing anchorage zone corrosion cracks into

Orthotropic steel decks (OSD) of bridges are subjected to cyclic vehicle loads, leading to the growth of fatigue cracks. Fatigue strengths are dependent on fatigue details and the load effects vary from position to position; consequently, the spatial distribution of fatigue cracks on the bridge deck is not uniform. Previous studies on fatigue effects of OSD are mainly limited to a single fatigue detail

A need exists to determine the fatigue life of multi-span continuous bridges in the design stage. It is difficult to conduct a full-scale fatigue test of a bridge, hence the simulation of bridge-vehicle interaction dynamics is important to estimate the fatigue life of bridges. The vehicles entering the bridge are random in nature. In the present study, the arrival time of the vehicles is considered

Transformer bushing systems have exhibited vulnerability during past earthquakes. Based on past qualification tests, it was found that the seismic performance of transformer bushing systems is improved when the bushings are mounted on a rigid base, as opposed to when mounted on more flexible cover plates of transformers. The addition of flexural stiffeners on the transformer cover plates has been proven

Over the past years, a remarkable number of bridges have been collapsed or failed worldwide, underlying the growing importance of condition assessment of bridge structures within the context of health monitoring of structures and their life cycles become important to prevent such events. If utilised correctly, advanced Non-Destructive Techniques (NDTs) have proved to be effective in detecting imperfections

Application of massive data to structural health monitoring (SHM) may lead to serious problems such as difficulty, computational inefficiency, and low damage detectability. This paper proposes innovative hybrid methods in order to detect damage under massive data, ambient vibration, and environmental and/or operational variability. Each of the proposed methods consists of a three-stage algorithm including

Bridges in service may experience accidental actions, which may alter their structural integrity. Bracing systems are provided along the arch to reduce the risk of damage or failure. In this work, the post-buckling response of a generic network arch bridge has been investigated throughout an intensive finite element analysis. Initially, a buckling analysis was carried out on the steel bridge to find

This work addresses structural model reduction, a process necessary in structural health monitoring, where large quantities of data are recorded and must be evaluated. Therefore, numerical modelling of a structure is necessary for processing the recorded data and for estimating structural degradation over time. In order to avoid complex structural models and to economize computational resources, reduced

This paper is focused on the description and application of an extended version of the Interpolation Method for the damage localization where a statistical characterization of the indicator is proposed. The damage indicator is defined in terms of the probability of exceedance of a detection threshold corresponding to the accepted probability of false alarm. The verification of the accuracy of the novel

This paper presents a uniform and consistent semi-quantitative classification of consequences of failure of buildings as part of a multi-level seismic risk management framework for existing buildings to help building owners make risk-informed decisions for the seismic evaluation and retrofit of existing buildings to minimise the life safety risk. The management framework consists of three levels of

Finite-element-model updating allows reducing the discrepancies between the numerical and the experimental dynamic behaviour of civil engineering structures. Among the different methods to tackle the updating problem, the maximum likelihood method has been widely used for practical engineering applications. In this method, the updating problem is transformed into an optimization problem where the relative

Business recovery after a disaster plays an important role in the socioeconomic recovery of a community. This study focuses on the development of a probabilistic modelling approach for quantifying and predicting business recovery through Bayesian linear regression. The proposed modelling approach consists of three steps including data collection, development of model forms, and model selection through

This article investigates the impacts of the column system on bridge life-cycle costs in high seismic areas. It focuses on hybrid sliding-rocking (HSR) columns, which are an accelerated bridge construction (ABC) technology. The authors conduct a life-cycle cost assessment, quantifying costs of bridge construction and potential earthquake damage and subsequent repairs, as well as the cost of bridge

This paper presents robust design optimisation (RDO) of offshore jacket platforms under random wave force. It is well-established that the direct Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) is the most accurate way to deal with RDO under uncertainty. However, such approach requires extensive computational time for real complex structures. In the present study, a new cumulative distribution function (CDF)-based RDO

Vulnerability analysis has become a recent concern for bridge administration authorities. This paper presents a Bayesian network-based vulnerability evaluation methodology for a large-scale national highway (NH) bridge network, using the improved ORDER-II-Dijkstra algorithm. The NH bridge network consists of 1772 bridges, and includes their spatial locations, types, completion years, and assessment

For a bridge, its columns or piers, which are the main seismically resistant members of the bridge, are generally retrofitted to improve seismic performance. However, retrofitting may cause unexpected damage to the non-retrofitted components/members. Therefore, a corresponding retrofitting of these components/members should be considered as part of any retrofitting method to eliminate unexpected damage

This paper describes a numerical study on the vehicle instability when crossing curved highway bridge during an earthquake. Analytical framework using two-axle vehicle dynamics model is developed to describe vehicle vibration when moving under seismic excitation from the curved bridge girder. The model includes out-of-plane and in-plane motion along with the effect of curved girder with specific radius

Abstract In the past, reinforced concrete structures were built utilising plain reinforcement bars. Currently, this construction method is seldom considered by codes and research; however, many heritage structures are still standing and in need of proper assessment. In particular, there is a lack of knowledge on the effect of corrosion on the bond between concrete and plain reinforcement bars. To address

Identifying key variables that influence crack formation in buried concrete sewer pipes and impact their structural integrity is crucial for evaluating the leakage and collapse vulnerability of these underground structures. The present study performs a comprehensive global sensitivity analysis for these critical pipe responses considering various uncertainties associated with material properties and

It is well recognised that the severity of pipeline external corrosion is highly related to the corrosivity of the surrounding soil environment. However, in practice, the explicit effects of the soil corrosivity variables on the spatial distribution of external corrosion defects are largely unknown. This paper presents a novel modelling and predicting approach for pipeline external corrosion defect