To enable proper and long-term maintenance planning for a huge and heterogeneous set of engineering structures VCE developed an integrated life cycle management tool that offers tailored solutions with regard to the given location, involved materials, fabricates and the underlying design code at the time of construction.
The core of this tool is formed by a probabilistic ageing model and a comprehensive cost model. Each structural member is represented by a generic ageing function, which is derived from the major sources of information reflecting impact on structural ageing (Visual Inspection/Numerical Simulation/Structural Monitoring and freight traffic progression). Furthermore the model incorporates VCEs’ 50 years of experience in the field of bridge inspections and structural health monitoring. Due to defined treatment trigger criteria a huge set of maintenance strategies is generated leading to an extensive optimization exercise. The final project output is composed by tailored maintenance plans for every structure.
