Damage safety assessment and maintenance management strategy of bridges

Damage cumulation in existing bridges affects not only on normal service of bridges, but also on service safety of structures. Both load carrying capacity testing and health monitoring technology could not alone identify damage cumulation, which often leads to brittle fracture of bridges. A new approach of damage safety assessment based on damage mechanism is proposed, which combines local nondestructive inspection with global health monitoring technology to identify and localize damage. On the basis of accurate damage identification, damage mechanics, fatigue and fracture mechanics, reliability theory are applied for damage safety assessment. According to the online safety assessment results and the damage characteristics of different types of bridges, maintenance management strategy is timely suggested in order to help management department to ensure the service safety of bridges. The practice application of the new method is introduced through the example of Waibaidu Bridge in Shanghai. Finally, some suggestions about damage safety assessment of bridges in the future are given.