| dc.description.abstract | Currently, bridges in Taiwan are inspected visually and evaluated by the DER&U methodology. In the methodology, condition of the a bridge is determined by a weighted calculation of bridge components with four indices; i.e., degree of deterioration (D), extent of the deterioration (E), relevancy to bridge safety (R), and urgency to repair (U). The DER&U methodology has been applied to concrete and steel bridges but not to truss bridges. Traditionally, inspection results of truss bridges are only stored in the comment field, thus the condition of the truss bridge cannot be shown correctly.
Based on the DER&U methodology, this study firstly categorized various components of a truss bridge and then obtained evaluation standards and weights for calculation of these components from experts and questionnaire surveys. Thus, condition of a truss bridge can be calculated as other types of bridges. As such, comparisons among bridge conditions become possible and reasonable. In addition, since inspection trucks are rare and inspection costs are expensive, inspection of the truss bridge is a tough task due to its numerous truss components. To improve the efficiency and decrease the cost of inspection, this study also developed a long rod inspection tool. Finally, feasibility of underwater inspection of bridge components is
also explored in this study. | en_US |