Environmental Effects on Ultimate Strength Reliability of Corroded Steel Box Girder Bridges

This study develops an assessment procedure for the ultimate strength reliability of steel box girder bridges that takes into account the plate member degradation that results from uniform corrosion in different environmental conditions. This paper is a sequel to the authors’ previous paper (Sharifi and Paik 2010), which deals with the effects of pit and general corrosion on the load-carrying capacity and reliability of these bridges. In contrast to that paper, the effects of different environmental conditions on such capacity and reliability are considered herein. Probabilistic corrosion rate parameters based on the available data are provided, and an analytical formula for predicting time-dependent ultimate strength is developed. The results of this study can be used in accurately predicting the service life and earliest repair time of corroded steel box girder bridges constructed in different environmental conditions.

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