RELIABILITY-BASED COMPONENT DETERIORATION MODEL FOR BRIDGE LIFE-CYCLE COST ANALYSIS

One major development in bridge life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) in recent years is to develop deterioration model for bridge components so that the times of repair/replacement throughout a component's life span can be properly determined. Taiwan also developed her own bridge LCCA model in 2003, integrating with the bridge inspection database in the local bridge management system (T-BMS). Under the framework of the local LCCA model, this study employs the reliability method in developing a deterioration model of bridge components. A component deteriorates through time in its reliability, which represents the probability of a component's condition index exceeds a user specified threshold. Model assumptions and rationale are described in the paper. The steps for applying the developed model are explained in detail. Results and findings are reported.