Structural Reliability Analysis of Corroding Steel Bridges Using Random-Field Representation

The functional safety of steel bridges is of great importance for governments and infrastructure managers. This functionality is, however, affected by natural aging and environmental threads such as corrosion. Corrosion can play major role in steel bridge failure; mainly by reducing the thickness of bridge girders or by forming pits on the steel surface which consequently affects the structural integrity of the bridge. In this study, an innovative technique for representation of corrosion has been used when applying a multi-failure reliability analysis method. To this aim, the distribution of corrosion pits is modelled by a 2D random field and then, the generated surface is incorporated with a Monte-Carlo reliability analysis method to predict the service life of in-service steel bridge girders.