Computational platform for the integrated life-cycle management of highway bridges

Throughout their service life, highway bridges are subject to progressive deterioration in performance; an issue that may render the use of these facilities unsafe at some point in time. Over the last few decades, there has been successful research towards developing procedures for establishing the various vital elements required in the life-cycle management of civil infrastructure. It is noted, however, that frameworks for integrating these elements together are lacking. The objective of this paper is to present an integrated framework for the life-cycle management of highway bridges in the form of a detailed computational platform. The elements integrated into the framework include the advanced assessment of life-cycle performance, analysis of system and component performance interaction, advanced maintenance optimization, and updating the life-cycle performance by information obtained from structural health monitoring and controlled testing.