During the past decade, monitoring concepts for structural systems have been subjected to a rapid development process. They have become more and more important in the intervention planning (e.g., maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, replacement) on new and existing structures. Nevertheless, there is still a strong need for the efficient use of structural monitoring data in the reliability assessment and prediction models. Updating prediction models, based on monitoring data, affect the intervention strategies. Since these strategies involve costs, monitoring systems assist the efficient spending of available budgets. Therefore, the demand for the efficient use of monitoring data is not only related to structural reliability, but also to cost aspects. In an extended sense, structural monitoring can be considered similar to quality assurance and acceptance sampling, since it is not practically possible to continuously monitor all performance indicators in all critical sections of an entire structural system...

This paper proposes a generalized probabilistic framework for optimum inspection and maintenance planning of deteriorating structures. The proposed framework covers (1) the damage occurrence and propagation and service life prediction under uncertainty, (2) the relation between degree of damage and probability of damage detection of an inspection method, and (3) the effects of inspection and maintenance on service life and life-cycle cost. Optimum inspection and maintenance types and times are obtained through an optimization formulation by maximizing the expected service life and minimizing the expected total life-cycle cost consisting of inspection and maintenance costs. The service life, life-cycle cost, and maintenance delay, along with inspection and maintenance actions, are formulated using a decision tree model. The selection of the appropriate maintenance type depends on the degree of damage. The proposed framework is general and can be applied to any types of deteriorating structures or m...

The optimal decisions to maintain or improve the reliability and functionality of structures and infrastructure systems can only be achieved through proper integrated management planning in a life-cycle comprehensive framework. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering (SIE) is an international journal dedicated to recent advances inmaintenance, management, and life-cycle performance of a wide range of infrastructures. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief review of the recent research accomplishments in the field of design, maintenance, life-cycle management, and optimisation of structures and infrastructures reported in papers published in SIE during the period 2005–2011. The papers are categorised under main topics and very briefly discussed.

Based on the long-term monitored strain data induced by heavy vehicle traffic on an existing bridge, this paper presents an efficient approach to assessing the bridge system performance through a series-parallel system model consisting of bridge component reliabilities. The correlations among the bridge component safety margins are obtained by using actual traffic and strain data from structural health monitoring (SHM). The prediction of bridge system reliability in the future is dependent on the performance functions of components. Sensitivity studies with respect to system modeling, correlations, extreme value probability distributions, measurement errors, and number of observations are carried out. A case study of the proposed approach is provided on an existing highway bridge in Wisconsin, which was monitored in 2004 by the Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems Center, a National Engineering Research Center at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa, USA. This study provides a solid basis for inte...