Safety Assessment Using Imprecise Reliability for Corrosion-Damaged Structures

Abstract

Safety assessment procedure including imprecise reliability for corrosion-damaged structures is proposed in this article. The proposed procedure may be used for the safety assessment of corroded structures when the data for safety analysis are insufficient or when a decision for safety management is urgently required. In case exact measurement such as nondestructive test cannot be utilized to assess a corroded point for any reason, expert's estimation with simple visual inspection based on the data of nondestructive test at near point can be used. The system reliability-based safety assessment may then be performed approximately but rationally by simply converting the qualitative expert's estimation to quantitative terms in this proposed procedure. Moreover, the approximate safety expressed as a safety range could also be evaluated effectively in hazardous environments such as typhoon where data collection for deterioration is very difficult. The proposed safety assessment procedure using the imprecise reliability was also applied to a cable-stayed bridge in Korea to demonstrate its effectiveness and applicability.