Corrosion-induced fragility of existing prestressed concrete girder bridges under traffic loads

Italian and European transportation networks include a significant number of existing bridges, built since the early ‘60s, characterised by simply supported prestressed concrete (PC) girders with post-tensioned steel tendons. Corrosion of tendons, which may lead to significant loss of structural capacity, cannot be detected by simple visual inspections and requires advanced and expensive testing by bridge owners. Therefore, procedures aimed at risk-informed prioritisation of advanced inspections and possibly retrofit are needed. The paper presents a study on the fragility of existing PC girder bridges considering traffic loads, accounting for corrosion-induced effects. An automated framework is proposed, aiming at the efficient probabilistic structural assessment of the investigated bridge typology accounting for different critical corrosion scenarios and the influence of knowledge-based uncertainty related to geometric and mechanical properties. To simulate corrosion effects, prestressing steel tendon geometric and mechanical characteristics are modified through a specific algorithm able to estimate variations in flexural and shear bearing capacity of critical cross-sections. To simulate the traffic loads, a simplified analysis is performed by using code-based traffic load models. In the paper, the framework is tested with reference to a dataset of case-study superstructures. The obtained fragility curves are deeply discussed, highlighting the effects of the number of girders and span length on the corrosion-induced increase in fragility. Although the proposed methodology presents some simplifications, it could improve the current practices of risk prioritisation, by supporting transportation authorities in ensuring the safety of the existing bridge stock.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2024.118302
• Record URL:
  • http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141029624008642
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/01410296
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Nettis, Alessandro
  • Nettis, Andrea
  • Ruggieri, Sergio
  • Uva, Giuseppina
• Publication Date: 2024-9-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 118302
• Serial:
  • Engineering Structures
  • Volume: 314
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0141-0296
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01410296

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Corrosion; Girder bridges; Material tendons; Posttensioning; Prestressed concrete bridges; Traffic loads
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01928878
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 27 2024 9:40AM