Condition Assessment of Existing RC Highway Bridges in China Based on SIE2011

Abstract

Subjective or inaccurate condition assessment is the most critical technical barrier to effective management of highway bridges. In 2011, the promulgation of the specification for the inspection and evaluation of the load-bearing capacities of highway bridges (SIE2011) in China promoted quantitative evaluation of Chinese highway bridges, but a series of empirical coefficients of load-bearing capacity needs to be calibrated to determine the deterioration of material strength and rigidity of bridge cross sections in such evaluations. In this paper, the coefficients are integrated into the performance function used to determine the flexural limit state of highway bridges, and a Monte Carlo sampling method is used to calculate the reliability indices of existing RC simply supported T-beam highway bridges and to predict the probability of failure of the existing highway bridges in each condition state and at each age. Based on statistical data from 1,228 bridges constructed between 1978 and 2008 in Beijing, predictions of the distribution of condition states for the bridges during 2015–2080 were made. Based on a case study of a highway bridge built in 1978, the inspection results and calculated reliability for the bridge are compared to validate the rationality of the coefficients specified in SIE2011.