Estimation of the remaining useful life of bridge structures through the development and testing of hybrid models
Acronym: ENDURE
Funds: FFG – DACH-Call 2021
Project start: 01. December 2021
Project partners:
- Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)
- Infrastructure Management Consulting (IMC)
Bridge structures are the most vulnerable components of the road infrastructure. The evaluation of their condition via inspections and monitoring is therefore standardized practice in all D-A-CH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) countries. The current assessment of the structures is based on condition rating. The detected findings on the structure and the resulting assessment are recorded in database systems. The data sets thus enable an insight into the condition development. These data sets also have the potential to predict the remaining service life of a bridge or its elements. However, this valuable potential is still not being fully exploited. The aim of this research project is to integrate the inspection or monitoring data sets in the estimation of the remaining service life of bridge structures. This goal is essential for maintaining the functionality of our infrastructure, as a large part of the bridge structures in the D-A-CH countries either have reached their design service life or will reach it in the coming decades. The assessment of the remaining service life will enable the use of both – the established condition ratings and key performance indicators that are defined in cooperation with the infrastructure operators. The two approaches – condition rating and key performance indicators – are combined by means of hybrid models with information from physical models of different damage mechanisms. The hybrid models mathematically combine the information from the physical models with the available expert knowledge and allow the remaining service life to be updated as soon as new information is obtained from inspections. The final goal is to develop prototype (IT tool) to estimate the remaining service life of bridge structures or their elements (e.g. bearings and joints) in order to optimize the maintenance strategies. The IT tool is validated on selected reference structures that are selected from the databases of the D-A-CH partners. Based on the project results, recommendations for future inspections regarding the data scope and their use in the hybrid model are derived in order to optimize future maintenance management.
Letzte Änderung: 8. April 2022