Abstract One of the most important components of an electrical substation is its power transformer, but this component is vulnerable to earthquakes. Several studies have demonstrated the good potential of base isolation to improve the seismic resistance of transformers. However, cost-effectiveness of a base isolation system is as important to the managers of a power grid as its isolation efficiency

Abstract Multiple pipeline failures in water distribution systems (WDS) caused by natural hazards such as earthquakes can significantly reduce the functionality of the systems. After a natural disaster, a quick recovery of WDS is desirable to ensure that critical facilities have access to clean water. However, experience from recent disasters has shown that the recovery period for WDS can be long.

Abstract Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) technology has found its way into several civilian applications in the last 20 years, predominantly due to lower cost and tangible scientific improvements. In its application to structural bridge inspection, UAVs provide two main functions. The first, being the most common, detect damage through visual sensors. The 2 D image data can be used to quickly establish

Abstract Condition assessment of aging infrastructure is a growing concern all over the world. A systematic performance assessment is a pre-requisite for effective asset and infrastructure management. Accordingly, this article develops an integrated approach for the performance assessment of the municipal infrastructure. The main objectives are to develop an approach to assess, measure, and combine

Abstract Bridge collapses in Turkey have not been the subject of any comprehensive study so far. Investigations are often kept confidential for various reasons. As a result, most of the time only limited information can be found about these collapses with some exceptions such as the 1999 Arifiye Bridge collapse due to seismic event and the 2012 Çaycuma bridge collapse due to pier scour. Both resulted

Abstract Bridge bearings easily suffer damage when exposed to various loading and environmental changes during their lifetime. This effect can have a considerable impact on the bridge service performance, and bearing replacement should be performed if damage occurs. Compared with highway bridges, bearing replacement for long-span bridges under operating high-speed railways (HSRs) is more challenging

Abstract Optimization of the duration of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) campaigns is rarely performed. This article provides a utility-based solution to posteriorly determine: i) optimal monitoring durations and ii) the extension of the service life of the welds on a steel bridge deck. The approach is illustrated with a case study focusing on remaining fatigue life estimation of the welds on the

Abstract The management of civil infrastructures in the aftermath of a seismic event is a concern for decision makers, which have to choose quickly among alternative actions with limited knowledge on the actual structural conditions. The availability of real time Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) data on the asset might be particularly useful. However, SHM data are not collected for free, and the

Abstract Scour has been recognized as one of the leading causes of bridge collapse in the United States. Therefore, it is essential to be able to build models that accurately capture the response of bridges vulnerable to scour, including those located in layered rather than homogeneous soil deposits. Simple removal of soil springs due to scour ignores the effect of stress history for layered soils

Abstract This paper investigates the assessment of corrosion effects on the performance of the composite bridge caused by chloride ions during the service life depending on Cellular Automata (CA) and Finite Element Method (FEM). It also provided a detailed guide to evaluate the performance of existing bridges. Firstly, the diffusion of chloride ions process in the bridge deck is simulated based on

Abstract Structural health monitoring (SHM) projects are mostly based on semi-empirical decisions, emphasising the importance of the structure and lacking a rational comparison of the benefits and costs. The present work offers guidance to overcome this, based on an objective framework using the quantification of the value of SHM in an engineering context. Firstly, procedures for practising engineers

Abstract Significant research efforts have been recently invested towards the evaluation of chloride-induced deterioration effects on the seismic vulnerability of aging highway bridges. Furthermore, when located in coastal cities with increased urbanisation or near shipyards, bridge structures may also be subjected to potentially high levels of carbon dioxide emissions. Consequently, the physicochemical

Abstract The in-service sea-crossing bridge handles a large number of vehicles, while considerable wind exists on the superstructure and wave exists on the substructure simultaneously, on a daily basis. Apart from the service loads, the bridges may also encounter extreme natural hazards such as earthquake, hurricane, etc., which might greatly threaten the structural safety. In particular, this article

Abstract Spatial variability and limited measurements often result in low reliability estimates of geotechnical failure modes of dikes (i.e., earthen flood defences). Required dike reinforcements are usually not executed within a few years after inception, which enables efforts to improve reliability estimates by reducing uncertainty. Often decision makers are unclear on whether uncertainty reduction

Abstract The assessment of existing road bridges as parts of infrastructure networks is required in consideration of their deterioration and age. Advanced monitoring and management tools are mainly used for landmark bridges while the decision making process for small to medium bridges, which constitute the majority of the bridge network, mainly relies on condition assessment based on experience and

Abstract Structural inspection often requires slowing down the traffic during the operation by limiting the number of passing vehicles or deviating the traffic. One of the possible inspection techniques is by laser scanning. Because of the high cost of use and data treatment, the laser technique is mainly applied either in specific structures or structures with a specific behaviour. The fact that all

Abstract Facing the contradiction between increasing maintenance demand and limited financial, as well as smaller social and environmental impacts, the optimisation of bridge maintenance strategies should be carried out. In this paper, the assessment model of four objectives, including the safety performance, economic, social and environmental impacts, in sustainability criteria are proposed. Moreover

Abstract The uninterrupted functioning of our energy infrastructure is crucial to the operation of modern day society. Thus, the energy infrastructure we construct today must be capable of supplying reliable power in our future climate. This may require development of effective and financially viable climate change adaptation actions. This is challenging for energy infrastructure for a number of reasons

Abstract The present study aims at constructing an assembly of fragility curves which is a tool for probabilistic investigation of seismic responses for a six storey reinforced concrete base-isolated building, excited by near field (NF) and far field (FF) real ground motions, situated in plain terrain. For the sake of comparison, a similar fixed base building has been chosen. The base isolator adopted

Abstract Of the 604,485 bridges in the United States, approximately 21% are culverts having a span of 6 m (20 ft) or greater. The load rating of typical bridges presents numerous challenges. Developing load ratings for non-typical structures, such as buried arch-shaped culverts is more complex because of the culverts’ unique geometric configuration and their interaction with soil media. This paper

(2020). Risk-, resilience-, and sustainability-informed assessment and management of civil infrastructure in a life-cycle context. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering. Ahead of Print.

Abstract Road infrastructures and bridge networks are becoming increasingly complex systems due to the development of technology in transportation engineering and the continual growth of urban communities. Infrastructure disservice due to seismic events may lead to unacceptable discomfort for commuters. Moreover, network downtime results into economic losses for the affected community, to be quantified

Abstract This paper introduces a wireless smart sensor network to meet the requirements for measuring low-amplitude ambient and sudden event monitoring of civil structures. The developed sensor platform consists of a high-sensitive sensing component for high-fidelity vibration measurements and a reliable event detection switch through a trigger accelerometer to detect and record sudden events. Particularly

Abstract This study addresses the quantification and compensation of the so-called mass loading effect, a disturbance that typically occurs in structural health monitoring of bridges. Source of this effect is the time-variant traffic, which means that dynamic performance indicators such as identified resonance frequencies are also time-variant. Basis of this study is the ambient acceleration response

Abstract Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have been used in various monitoring applications for the past two decades, as one of the very few options to provide absolute positions in a global reference frame. However, high performance GNSS stations are expensive, and sometimes may be impractical because of their size, power consumption or software requirements. Thus, the use of low-cost GNSS

Abstract Assessment of the potential for damage to community’s residential buildings exposed to extreme natural hazards is essential for measuring and optimising resilience enhancement strategies for communities. This paper develops a probability-based method to estimate the potential for damage and losses to a community’s residential building portfolio due to tropical cyclones (TC) by aggregating

Abstract To develop disaster mitigation measures in coastal regions affected by earthquakes, it is important to consider the effects of both seismic and tsunami hazards on road structures and assess the social impacts associated with the economic loss and reduction in network functionality. In this paper, a risk- and resilience-based assessment framework is established for road networks under both

Abstract The data and information available at the community-scale are directly linked to the ability to make a resilience-informed decision in natural hazards. This paper develops a systematic approach to quantify the implication of building inventory accuracy on resilience metrics for informed decision-making across engineering, economic and sociological dimensions at the community level. The method

Abstract One approach for upgrading existing high-speed railway bridges which are susceptible to excessive vibrations is to install damping devices. In this article, a model of a simply supported bridge with supplemental fluid viscous dampers installed between the superstructure and the abutments is derived based on an arbitrary mode of vibration. The aim is to ensure the robustness of the proposed

Abstract It is of vital importance to incorporate sustainability and resilience in the performance-based decision-making of civil infrastructure under seismic hazard. However, a performance-based engineering framework utilizing component-level approach, integrating seismic loss, sustainability, and resilience in a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is not yet extensively developed particularly for

Abstract In civil infrastructure maintenance planning, prevention of severe accidents is essential. Toward that aim, it is necessary to consider the probability of rare events, and risk indices such as value at risk (VaR) and conditional value at risk (CVaR) are frequently employed. However, these indices are not time-consistent. A policy that was initially regarded as optimal may therefore not be

Abstract The effects of earthquake incidence angle on the seismic fragility of highway bridges of unequal pier heights are investigated. A variety of configurations from regular to so-called highly irregular models are considered. In order to accurately quantify the uncertainties in the modeling process, the most influential sources related to the material properties, earthquake characteristics and

Abstract Following the damage to infrastructure systems in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, a new seismic design concept named the anti-catastrophe concept in seismic design framework was proposed for the resilience of infrastructure. It states that seismic damage to infrastructure could shift discontinuously from a normal to a severe level, which we refer to as the ‘phase transition’ of infrastructure

Abstract Among the main concerns of water companies are to maintain the optimal performance of pipes in water distribution networks (WDNs); this is achieved by activities, such as renewal works, maintenance actions, pressure management and other improvement operations. Accordingly, determining the risk associated with pipes is useful when planning such renewal works. In this study, a model is developed

Abstract Bridges are critical infrastructure, and effective operation and maintenance (O&M) is essential for ensuring the good condition of bridges. Owing to the increasing complexity of modern bridges and the availability of information technologies (e.g. sensors, laser scanners, and ultrasonic radar) for the collection of massive data, bridge O&M and decision-making gradually shift toward a data-driven

Abstract In the present paper, a novel method is proposed to consider the inherent uncertainties in railway track degradation model using data from eliciting expert prior beliefs in the Bayesian framework. This leads the infrastructure manager to more integrated and updatable maintenance decisions. Despite the extensive observation of this phenomenon in the literature, there are still growing appeals

Abstract Physical models for carbonation-induced reinforcement corrosion and concrete cracking have been proposed mainly based on accelerated carbonation tests. However, it has been criticised for not being representable of the natural corrosion process, and may not be applicable to real structures, so it is meaningful to calibrate and modify these models with in-situ inspection data of reinforced

Abstract This paper presents a deep learning (DL)-based method for the instance segmentation of cracks from shield tunnel lining images using a mask region-based convolutional neural network (Mask R-CNN) incorporated with a morphological closing operation. The Mask R-CNN herein is divided into a backbone architecture, a region proposal network (RPN), and a head architecture for specification, and the

Abstract The paper investigates the flexure behaviour and cracking pattern of reinforced concrete beams utilizing steel and GFRP reinforcement using a judicious combination of non-destructive testing techniques of Acoustic Emission (AE) and Digital Image Correlation (DIC). AE parameters including amplitude, number of AE hits, average frequency (AF) and rise angle (RA) successfully correlate with cracking

Abstract Maintenance continues for structure’s life cycle, which usually costs a lot. Inspection and/or monitoring are widely implemented to investigate the conditions of the structures. Existing databases are sometimes referred to for understanding the performance of structure with inspection/monitoring data. Since structural performance is related to various irregularly time-shifted factors, it is

Abstract The residual deformation is one crucial factor determining the structural safety and the structural repair cost after earthquakes. Hence, the quantitative estimation of residual displacements is necessary for modern performance-based design and assessment procedures. This study evaluates the residual displacement responses of single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems with Bouc-Wen model under

Abstract Electricity has substantial effects on rescue and relief responses after strong earthquakes. Substations are essential components of electric power networks, and their seismic performance has recently attracted the attention of academia and industry, in particular, the recovery capacity from external events. This capacity is referred to as seismic resilience, which is defined as the ability

Abstract Information on dynamic displacement is an effective indicator for structures condition evaluation and provides a quantised insight into the structural analysis. This paper proposes a low-cost system based on computer vision using a smartphone to measure dynamic displacement, and then identify the dynamic properties of structures. Conventional sensors like linear variable differential transformers

Abstract Tall buildings are especially prone to damage caused by winds and earthquakes. In practice, only a single hazard is assumed to dominate the design and is adopted for structural verifications. This is also the case when supplemental damping devices such as tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are adopted. Nevertheless, previous research has shown that from a life-cycle cost (LCC) perspective the dominant

Abstract Due to the increasing demand for safer and faster rail transport, train wheelsets operating under high axle loads require more careful and reliable inspections and maintenance. During service, the train wheelsets are constantly operating under harsh conditions such as fatigue, thermal variation and impact. The wheel defects can induce damage to railway tracks or even derailments, increasing

Abstract In many countries concrete bridges are reaching the end of their service-life, showing signs of deterioration, e.g. due to corrosion. Hence, the question arises whether their safety level is still acceptable. To improve the estimate of the safety level, information extracted from different tests, e.g. proof-loading, operational modal analysis, etc., where deflections, strains or accelerations

Abstract Recent disruptive events, such as earthquakes or floods, have caused severe damage to civil infrastructure systems. Thus, there is a need to extend the focus of traditional design practices to include resilience-based design approaches which can help in defining preventive actions and measures to mitigate the consequences caused by such disruptive events. This paper presents a Civil Infrastructure

Abstract In the Netherlands, probabilistic life cycle cash flow forecasting for infrastructures has gained attention in the past decennium. Frequencies, volume and unit prices of life cycle activities are treated as uncertainty variables for which an expert-based triangular distribution is assumed. The current research observes the absence of time-variant variables typical for infrastructure life cycles

Abstract The data related to the failure of bridges that occurred during the period 1977–2017 in India have been collected from various sources, including print and electronic media. The data have been classified under various categories based on their material, cause of failure and others. More than 2130 bridges (excluding culverts and pedestrian bridges) have failed to provide intended service or

Abstract Bridge deck fires are a major concern in recent years because of the increasing number of relative accidents and the following serious consequences. This paper studies the process of bridge deck fire in the full-open environment by using numerical simulation method and then develops the simplified fire model with wind effects. Firstly, the essential parameters of fire scenarios simulation

Abstract Spatial variability of tensile strength, widely existing in concrete gravity dams due to the influence of long construction period and heterogeneous construction quality, has a profound impact on the nonlinear behaviour of structures. In this paper, a method to simulate the random field of the tensile strength of concrete gravity dams based on the random field theory is proposed. A typical

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