TY - JOUR

T1 - System reliability evaluation of in-service cable-stayed bridges subjected to cable degradation

AU - Lu, Naiwei

AU - Liu, Yang

AU - Beer, Michael

N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China [grant number 2015CB057705]; the National Science Foundation of China [grant number 51378081]; and the Key Laboratory of Bridge Engineering Safety Control in Department of Education [grant number 16KD03]. The authors are very grateful for the financial support from the National Basic Research Program (973 program) of China (grant number 2015CB057705), the National Science Foundation of China (grant number 51378081), and the Key Laboratory of Bridge Engineering Safety Control in Department of Education (grant number 16KD03). The first author would like to thank the help from the Institute for Risk and Reliability, Leibniz University Hannover.

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - The cables in a cable-stayed bridge are critical components supporting the long-span girders and ensuring their functionality. However, cables are prone to fatigue damage and atmospheric corrosion, which directly affect the bridge safety. This study presents a framework for system reliability evaluation of in-service cable-stayed bridges subjected to cable degradation. The effect of cable strength degradation on the system reliability is demonstrated through simulation on a parallel-series system representation. Learning machines are utilised to approximate the non-linear and dynamic response functions of critical components due to cable rupture, and the system reliability is finally evaluated from the event tree established by the β-unzipping method. Both short-span and long-span cable-stayed bridges are selected as prototypes to investigate the influence of cable degradation on the system reliability. On this basis it is revealed that cable degradation can significantly influence the collapse mechanism of a cable-stayed bridge and thereby lead to a significant reduction in the system reliability. This phenomenon is associated with cable spacing, where a spare cable system seems more sensitive to cable gradation. It is demonstrated that the consideration of cable corrosion and correlation is essential for lifetime safety evaluation of in-service cable-stayed bridges.

AB - The cables in a cable-stayed bridge are critical components supporting the long-span girders and ensuring their functionality. However, cables are prone to fatigue damage and atmospheric corrosion, which directly affect the bridge safety. This study presents a framework for system reliability evaluation of in-service cable-stayed bridges subjected to cable degradation. The effect of cable strength degradation on the system reliability is demonstrated through simulation on a parallel-series system representation. Learning machines are utilised to approximate the non-linear and dynamic response functions of critical components due to cable rupture, and the system reliability is finally evaluated from the event tree established by the β-unzipping method. Both short-span and long-span cable-stayed bridges are selected as prototypes to investigate the influence of cable degradation on the system reliability. On this basis it is revealed that cable degradation can significantly influence the collapse mechanism of a cable-stayed bridge and thereby lead to a significant reduction in the system reliability. This phenomenon is associated with cable spacing, where a spare cable system seems more sensitive to cable gradation. It is demonstrated that the consideration of cable corrosion and correlation is essential for lifetime safety evaluation of in-service cable-stayed bridges.

KW - cable degradation

KW - Cable-stayed bridges

KW - collapse mechanism

KW - corrosion

KW - failure path

KW - fatigue

KW - system reliability

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045763265&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/15732479.2018.1459743

DO - 10.1080/15732479.2018.1459743

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85045763265

VL - 14

SP - 1486

EP - 1498

JO - Structure and Infrastructure Engineering

JF - Structure and Infrastructure Engineering

SN - 1573-2479

IS - 11

ER -