Application of quality control plan to existing bridges

Abstract

The long-term quality assurance of bridges demands an adequate quality control plan detailing the main required activities and assessment tools. This paper presents the application of a quality control plan on two existing reinforced concrete bridges located in Portugal and North Macedonia. Based on the available results from visual inspections and non-destructive tests, defects and corresponding damage processes were identified. The structural safety of the case studies was assessed by means of a reliability index considering the identified damages. The reliability index computation was supported by a nonlinear finite element analysis. The computed reliability index that reflects the actual (‘today’) bridge condition was used as the base information in the preparation of possible maintenance scenarios. Three different maintenance scenarios were considered, namely, the improvement (corrective scenario), reduction (do nothing and rebuilt scenario), or delay in the reduction (preventative scenario) of the performance of the structure. By comparison of normalised net present values of the key performance indicators (reliability, safety, availability and costs), the most appropriate scenarios are found.

Keywords:

• Quality control plan
• reliability index
• maintenance
• bridge assessment
• degradation
• non-linear structural analysis
• uncertainties
• key performance indicators

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was developed at the University of Minho in close cooperation with the following entities: Portuguese Infrastructures, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, COST Action TU 1406. This work was partly financed by: (i) national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, under grant agreement ‘PD/BD/143142/2019’ and ‘PD/BD/143003/2018’ attributed to the 1^st and 2^ndauthor, respectively; and (ii) FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020.