Modelling of deterioration and lifetime assurance of concrete bridges

The aim of the project is development and implemetation of advanced mathematical tools and models within the framework of methodology for stochastic analysis of load capacity of bridges. The focus is particularly on efficient methods for advanced deterioration modelling and reliability calculation using nonlinear analysis of bridges. There are three main targets of the project:

1. Development of complex methodology of fully probabilistic assessment of load capacity and reliability of bridges. The verification of methodology and comparison with results of deterministic analyses according to present codes for design.
2. Implementation of advanced models of concrete carbonation, chloride ingress and corrosion of reinforcement for relibility prediction in time and lifetime of structures.
3. Development of efficient methods for reliability calculation (failure probability, reliability index) suitable for time consuming nonlinear analyses of bridges.

Soft computing techniques will be used, particularly artificial neural networks in combination with Latin Hypercube Sampling.