Download or read book Advanced Assessment Methods for Elderly Bridges. State-of-the-art and Justification Based on LCA written by Miriam Soriano Chacón and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: [ANGLÈS] Many of the existing bridges do not satisfy the structural requirements specified in design codes for new bridges. However, many of these bridges must remain in service and therefore decisions must be made in order to maintain their safety. In the design of new bridges, it is accepted "to be on the safe side" inherent in the standards; but for an assessment of an elderly bridge this procedure should be removed in order to have a more realistic understanding of the state of the structure. Otherwise, the decisions made, being too conservative, can result in unnecessary costs. The main problem is that many existing bridges near to the end of their live under conventional evaluation methods give results which imply or the replacement of the bridge or a high investment for repair it to bring it back to the performance level stipulated in the current standards. The existing advanced methods of structural assessment allow evaluating the actual state of the structure. It has been shown in many cases that better results can be obtained with advanced methods than with conventional methods because the advanced ones evaluate the structure decreasing as much as possible the existing uncertainties. This implies to move from a structure that initially seemed to require heavy investments or to be replaced, to a structure which would have acceptable conditions of behaviour at least for a certain period of time, with a much lower investment and an optimized repair and maintenance. Current methods of advanced evaluation are based on probabilistic methods of reliability through the updating of the variables that which contains uncertainty (traffic solicitations, etc.). This updating is carried out by site‐specific data taken with Structural Health Monitoring systems. Load tests also can be included within the advanced methodologies of evaluation. These evaluation methods have a great impact on the life‐cycle assessment of a bridge because apart from reducing the maintenance and repair costs allow, with a more accurate assessment, extend the lifespan of a structure while maintaining adequate levels of performance and safety. The present thesis aims to synthesize the state‐of‐the‐art of the mentioned advanced assessment methods used in bridges. It also highlights the involvement, influence and direct relationship of these methods with the different aspects which are currently considered in Life‐Cycle Assessment of existing bridges.