From Component Damage to System-Level Probabilistic Restoration Functions for a Damaged Bridge

Abstract

Disaster resilience and serviceability of transportation networks are highly influenced by the post-event state and functionality of their bridges. However, the evaluation of the functionality of bridges in the aftermath of extreme events and particularly during the restoration process has not been subjected to extensive studies in the past, due to several difficulties, such as the uncertainties involved in the restoration and decision-making processes. To this end, this paper presents a new framework to estimate probabilistic restoration functions for damaged bridges. The restoration schedule of the bridge is obtained through a mathematical optimization, given the restoration tasks of its components, as well as a number of logical practical construction considerations and logistic constraints. The residual functionality of the bridge is obtained from the restoration schedule by taking into account a number of safety- and construction-induced traffic disruptions during the repair process. A simulation-based technique is proposed to compute the probabilistic characteristics of the functionality. The application of the proposed methodology is presented for the case of a multispan simply supported (MSSS) steel girder bridge numerically analyzed for a seismic event scenario.