dc.description.abstract | There are various types of bridges in Taiwan owing to the evolvements and improvements of construction materials or technologies. The"DER&U"method, which was initially developed for inspecting concrete bridges, is not immediately applicable for all kinds of bridges due to differences among bridge components. There were modifications of such method for inspecting steel or cable-stayed bridges. However, for long bridges, some of them are compound; the inspection method is not yet modified. In addition, such bridges are also facing problems in recording inventory data.
There are more then 23,000 highway or roadway bridges in the"Taiwan Bridge Management System" (T-BMS), in which there are around 500 bridges that are more then 500 meters in length. Since T-BMS was not designed for long or compound bridges, the inventory data in T-BMS are recorded representatively, i.e., the data are not correctly reflecting each important component for these bridges.
This research starts with an investigation on the completeness of inventory data for long bridges. A reasonable format for such bridges is established based on structural behaviors of bridge girders. E.g., various layers for inputting inventory data are required for both long and compound bridges. As a result, the "DER&U" method is applicable for each segment of the long bridge whose girder may consist of different types of materials. An Overall Condition Index (OCI) is then formulated and calculated to represent the condition of the long bridge.
Results of this research have been incorporated into the T-BMS, which in deed improves the quality of inventory data in T-BMS. A better management performance for long bridges is also obtained. | en_US |