• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.109-120
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• 2007

In this study, a bridge maintenance system is developed to generate performance-based optimum maintenance strategy by considering the life-cycle cost. A multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem is formulated to generate a tradeoff maintenance scenarios which satisfies the balance among the conflicting objectives such as the performance and cost during the bridge lifetime and a genetic algorithm is applied to the system. By using the developed program, this study proposes a process of optimum maintenance scenario applying to the steel girder bridge of national road. The developed system improves the current methods of establishing the bridge maintenance strategy and can be utilized as an efficient tool to provide the optimum bridge maintenance scenario corresponding to the various constraints and requirements of bridge agency.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.8 no.6 s.31
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• pp.544-549
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• 2005

Nowadays, most of bridge networks are complete or close to completion. The biggest challenge railroad./highway agencies and departments of transportation face is the maintenance of these networks, keeping them safe and serviceable, with limited funds. To maintain the bridges effectively, there is an urgent need to predict their remaining life from a system reliability viewpoint. And, it is necessary to develop the maintenance models based on system reliability concept. In this paper, maintenance models are developed for preventive maintenance and essential maintenance by using system reliability and lifetime distributions. The proposed model is applied to an existing railroad bridge. The optimal maintenance strategy of this bridge is obtained in terms of services life extension and cumulative maintenance cost.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.569-584
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• 2016

This paper presents a method for stochastic modelling of fatigue crack growth and optimising inspection and maintenance strategy for the structural members of steel bridges. The fatigue crack evolution is considered as a stochastic process with uncertainties, and the Gamma process is adopted to simulate the propagation of fatigue crack in steel bridge members. From the stochastic modelling for fatigue crack growth, the probability of failure caused by fatigue is predicted over the service life of steel bridge members. The remaining fatigue life of steel bridge members is determined by comparing the fatigue crack length with its predetermined threshold. Furthermore, the probability of detection is adopted to consider the uncertainties in detecting fatigue crack by using existing damage detection techniques. A multi-objective optimisation problem is proposed and solved by a genetic algorithm to determine the optimised inspection and maintenance strategy for the fatigue affected steel bridge members. The optimised strategy is achieved by minimizing the life-cycle cost, including the inspection, maintenance and failure costs, and maximizing the service life after necessary intervention. The number of intervention during the service life is also taken into account to investigate the relationship between the service life and the cost for maintenance. The results from numerical examples show that the proposed method can provide a useful approach for cost-effective inspection and maintenance strategy for fatigue affected steel bridges.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6A
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• pp.1023-1032
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• 2006

In this paper, a new method for the bridge maintenance is proposed to overcome the limit of the existing methods and to implement the preventive bridge maintenance system. The proposed method can establish the lifetime optimum maintenance strategy of the deteriorating bridges considering the life-cycle performance as well as the life-cycle cost. The lifetime performance of the deteriorating bridges is evaluated by the safety index based on the structural reliability and the condition index detailing the condition state. The life-cycle cost is estimated by considering not only the direct maintenance cost but also the user and failure cost. The genetic algorithm is applied to generate a set of maintenance scenarios which is the multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem related to the life-cycle cost and performance. The study examined the proposed method by establishing a maintenance strategy for the existing bridge and its advantages. The result shows that the proposed method can be effectively applied to deciding the bridge maintenance strategy.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.641-653
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• 2008

This paper proposes a practical and realistic method to establish an optimal lifetime maintenance strategy for deteriorating bridges by considering the life-cycle performance as well as the life-cycle cost. The proposed method offers a set of optimal tradeoff maintenance scenarios among other conflicting objectives, such as minimizing cost and maximizing performance. A genetic algorithm is used to generate a set of maintenance scenarios that is a multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem related to the lifetime performance and the life-cycle cost as separate objective functions. A computer program, which generates optimal maintenance scenarios, was developed based on the proposed method using the life-cycle costs and the performance of bridges. The subordinate relation between bridge members has been considered to decide optimal maintenance sequence and a corresponding algorithm has been implemented into the program. The developed program has been used to present a procedure for finding an optimal maintenance scenario for steel-girder bridges on the Korean National Road. Through this bridge maintenance scenario analysis, it is expected that the developed method and program can be effectively used to allow bridge managers an optimal maintenance strategy satisfying various constraints and requirements.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.810-819
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• 2007

Usually the status of a bridge is determined by its structural capability and material strength. Consequently a lot of researchers have studied the failure, the fatigue, and the deterioration of the structure in terms of the structural function of a bridge. However, the overall performance of a bridge may be affected simply by the damage of one of its components. Therefore this study utilized a systematic classification and statistical analysis based on the existing bridge inspection data collected in Taiwan to reach the following goals: (1) assess the performance distribution and deterioration rate for bearing and expansion joint of bridge; (2) find out the right time to do the preventive and essential maintenance for the component of bridge with an empirical method, and to decide what time and which component of a bridge will receive preventive maintenance or regular maintenance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.14 no.5 s.60
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• pp.627-639
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• 2002

Bridge construction is almost complete in many countries. Thus, the government and highway agencies change their focus from constructing to maintaining. Effectively maintaining bridges require predicting their lifespan using a system reliability viewpoint. Likewise, maintenance models based on the system reliability concept should be developed. Thus, this study developed maintenance models for preventive maintenance and essential maintenance using system reliability and lifetime distributions. The optimal maintenance strategy for an existing bridge was obtained using the developed maintenance models.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.167-174
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• 2007

This study proposes a practical and realistic method to establish an optimal lifetime maintenance strategy for deteriorating bridges by considering the life-cycle performance as well as the life-cycle cost. The proposed method offers a set of optimal tradeoff maintenance scenarios among other conflicting objectives, such as minimizing cost and maximizing performance. A genetic algorithm is used to generate a set of maintenance scenarios that is a multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem related to the and the life-cycle cost and performance as separate objective functions. A computer program, which generates optimal maintenance scenarios, was developed based on the proposed method. The subordinate relation between bridge members has been considered to decide optimal maintenance sequence. The developed program has been used to present a procedure for finding an optimal maintenance scenario for steel-girder bridges on the Korean National Road. Through this bridge maintenance scenario analysis, it is expected that the developed method and program can be effectively used to allow bridge managers an optimal maintenance strategy satisfying various constraints and requirements.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.131-142
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• 2007

The road user cost in indirect costs as well as direct costs such as the inspection/ diagnosis cost and the repair/reinforcement cost should be considered as one of the important items in the life-cycle cost-effective design and maintenance of the bridges. To estimate the road user cost, this paper formulates the road user cost as a sum of the user delay cost and the vehicle operating cost considering the detour effect. A numerical traffic simulation and a regression analysis are performed to develop a regression model due to a time delay. The proposed regression model is applied to the generation of the maintenance strategy based on the life-cycle cost and performance, and its effectiveness and applicability is investigated. The road user cost has a great influence on establishing the maintenance strategy, and the proposed regression model could be successfully utilized to estimate the road user cost of a bridge.

• Magazine of the Korea Institute for Structural Maintenance and Inspection
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.56-59
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• 2014