Comparison of approaches to reliability verification of existing steel structures

Vitali Nadolski

nadolskivv@gmail.com
Department of Structural Reliability; Czech Technical University in Prague; (Czechia)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4211-7843

Milan Holicky


Department of Structural Reliability; Czech Technical University in Prague; (Czechia)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5325-6470

Miroslav Sykora


Department of Structural Reliability; Czech Technical University in Prague; (Czechia)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9346-3204

Viktar Tur


Department of Building Structures; Bialystok University of Technology; (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6046-1974

Abstract

Many existing steel structures are exposed to degradation due to corrosion or fatigue and to increasing loads. Their reliability assessment is then needed. The key question is whether a particular structure can be preserved ‘as it is’, or needs to be strengthened, or whether it needs to be replaced. Unnecessary replacements of existing structures may be avoided and the remaining service life of existing steel structures may be authorized by: using advanced reliability verification techniques, optimizing target reliability, and obtaining data for a specific site or structure. In this contribution, the application of advanced reliability approaches is illustrated by the assessment of an existing steel structure. The case study demonstrates that such approaches may significantly improve assessment and allow to increase the load-bearing capacity of the structure (in the case under investigation by 10 to 20%). Improvements in reliability assessment are attributed to the use of an optimal target reliability level, case-specific statistical parameters and probabilistic distributions of the basic variables, and adjusted partial factors.

Supporting Agencies

This study has been supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under Grant LTT18003.

Keywords:

Existing structures, adjusted partial factors, probabilistic approaches, reliability

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Published
2022-12-14

Cited by

Nadolski, V. (2022) “Comparison of approaches to reliability verification of existing steel structures”, Budownictwo i Architektura, 21(4), pp. 013–024. doi: 10.35784/bud-arch.3022.

Authors

Vitali Nadolski 
nadolskivv@gmail.com
Department of Structural Reliability; Czech Technical University in Prague; Czechia
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4211-7843




Authors

Milan Holicky 

Department of Structural Reliability; Czech Technical University in Prague; Czechia
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5325-6470

Authors

Miroslav Sykora 

Department of Structural Reliability; Czech Technical University in Prague; Czechia
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9346-3204

Authors

Viktar Tur 

Department of Building Structures; Bialystok University of Technology; Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6046-1974

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