Role of Corrosion & Earthquakes on Degradation of Dynamic Behaviour of Steel Bridge Plates

摘要

Major steel bridges are usually the crucial elements of the road and railway infrastructures. Very often they constitute a part of critical links between highly habited areas. As a consequence, their closure or traffic capacity reduction causes major inconveniences for the users and result in significant losses to the economy. Corrosion is one of the most important causes of deterioration of steel girder bridges which affects their long term mechanical performance, usability, and durability. Furthermore, some recent earthquakes demonstrated the potential seismic vulnerability of some types of steel bridges, and hence, it would be very important to understand the behaviour of existing steel bridges which are corroding for decades in future severe seismic events as well. Therefore, there is a need for evaluation procedures for an accurate prediction of the load carrying capacity and seismic resistance of bridge structures, in order to make rational decisions about repair, rehabilitation, and expected life-cycle costs. Therefore this paper investigates the effect of severe corrosion on remaining seismic strength capacities of existing steel bridge infrastructures through many finite element analyses and develops a simple, accurate, and reliable methodology which can be used for their maintenance management plan.