Construction Reliability: Safety, Variability and Sustainability

This book provides answers to the following problems: how to identify the most probable critical failures; how to describe and use data-concerning materials that are either heterogeneous, time-variant, or space-variant; how to quantify the reliability and lifetime of a system; how to use feedback information to actualize reliability results; and how to optimize an inspection politic or a maintenance strategy. Numerous authors from public research centers and firms propose a synthesis of methods, both new and well-known, and offer numerous examples concerning dams, geotechnical study, and structures from nuclear and civil engineering.

Table of Contents:
Preface xiii Julien BAROTH, Franck SCHOEFS and Denys BREYSSE Introduction xvii Julien BAROTH, Alaa CHATEAUNEUF and Franck SCHOEFS PART 1. QUALITATIVE METHODS FOR EVALUATING THE RELIABILITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING STRUCTURES 1 Introduction to Part 1 3 Chapter 1. Methods for System Analysis and Failure Analysis 5 Daniel BOISSIER, Laurent PEYRAS and Aurélie TALON 1.1. Introduction 5 1.2. Structural analysis 7 1.3. Functional analysis 10 1.4. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) 14 1.5. Bibliography 19 Chapter 2. Methods for Modeling Failure Scenarios 21 Daniel BOISSIER, Laurent PEYRAS and Aurélie TALON 2.1. Introduction 21 2.2. Event tree method 22 2.3. Fault tree method 24 2.4. Bow-tie method 26 2.5. Criticality evaluation methods 29 2.6. Bibliography 34 Chapter 3. Application to a Hydraulic Civil Engineering Project 37 Daniel BOISSIER, Laurent PEYRAS and Aurélie TALON 3.1. Context and approach for an operational reliability study 37 3.2. Functional analysis and failure mode analysis 39 3.3. Construction of failure scenarios 42 3.4. Scenario criticality analysis 44 3.5. Application summary 50 3.6. Bibliography 51 PART 2. HETEROGENEITY AND VARIABILITY OF MATERIALS: CONSEQUENCES FOR SAFETY AND RELIABILITY 53 Introduction to Part 2 55 Chapter 4. Uncertainties in Geotechnical Data 57 Denys BREYSSE, Julien BAROTH, Gilles CELEUX, Aurélie TALON and Daniel BOISSIER 4.1. Various sources of uncertainty in geotechnical engineering 57 4.2. Erroneous, censored and sparse data 62 4.3. Statistical representation of data 64 4.4. Data modeling 66 4.5. Conclusion 74 4.6. Bibliography 74 Chapter 5. Some Estimates on the Variability of Material Properties 77 Denys BREYSSE and Antoine MARACHE 5.1. Introduction 77 5.2. Mean value estimation 77 5.3. Estimation of characteristic values 82 5.4. Principles of a geostatistical study 86 5.5. Bibliography 96 Chapter 6. Reliability of a Shallow Foundation Footing 97 Denys BREYSSE 6.1. Introduction 97 6.2. Bearing capacity models for strip foundations – modeling errors 98 6.3. Effects of soil variability on variability in bearing capacity and safety of the foundation 101 6.4. Taking account of the structure of the spatial correlation and its influence on the safety of the foundation 109 6.5. Conclusions 115 6.6. Bibliography 117 PART 3. METAMODELS FOR STRUCTURAL RELIABILITY 119 Introduction to Part 3 121 Chapter 7. Physical and Polynomial Response Surfaces 123 Frédéric DUPRAT, Franck SCHOEFS and Bruno SUDRET 7.1. Introduction 123 7.2. Background to the response surface method 124 7.3. Concept of a response surface 125 7.4. Usual reliability methods 131 7.5. Polynomial response surfaces 133 7.6. Conclusion 143 7.7. Bibliography 143 Chapter 8. Response Surfaces based on Polynomial Chaos Expansions 147 Bruno SUDRET, Géraud BLATMAN and Marc BERVEILLER 8.1. Introduction 147 8.2. Building of a polynomial chaos basis 149 8.3. Computation of the expansion coefficients 151 8.4. Applications in structural reliability 158 8.5. Conclusion 164 8.6. Bibliography 165 PART 4. METHODS FOR STRUCTURAL RELIABILITY OVER TIME 169 Introduction to Part 4 171 Chapter 9. Data Aggregation and Unification 173 Daniel BOISSIER and Aurélie TALON 9.1. Introduction 173 9.2. Methods of data aggregation and unification 173 9.3. Evaluation of evacuation time for an apartment in case of fire 181 9.4. Conclusion 185 9.5. Bibliography 185 Chapter 10. Time-Variant Reliability Problems 187 Bruno SUDRET 10.1. Introduction 187 10.2. Random processes 188 10.3. Time-variant reliability problems 192 10.4. PHI2 method 197 10.5. Industrial application: truss structure under time-varying loads 202 10.6. Conclusion 204 10.7. Bibliography 205 Chapter 11. Bayesian Inference and Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods 207 Gilles CELEUX 11.1. Introduction 207 11.2. Bayesian Inference 208 11.3. MCMC methods for weakly informative data 210 11.4. Estimating a competing risk model from censored and incomplete data 219 11.5. Conclusion 225 11.6. Bibliography 225 Chapter 12. Bayesian Updating Techniques in Structural Reliability 227 Bruno SUDRET 12.1. Introduction 227 12.2. Problem statement: link between measurements and model prediction 228 12.3. Computing and updating the failure probability 229 12.4. Updating a confidence interval on response quantities 233 12.5. Bayesian updating of the model basic variables 235 12.6. Updating the prediction of creep strains in containment vessels of nuclear power plants 238 12.7. Conclusion 245 12.8. Acknowledgments 246 12.9. Bibliography 246 PART 5. RELIABILITY-BASED MAINTENANCE OPTIMIZATION 249 Introduction to Part 5 251 Chapter 13. Maintenance Policies 253 Alaa CHATEAUNEUF, Franck SCHOEFS and Bruno CAPRA 13.1. Maintenance 253 13.2. Types of maintenance 257 13.3. Maintenance models 262 13.4. Conclusion 269 13.5. Bibliography 269 Chapter 14. Maintenance Cost Models 271 Alaa CHATEAUNEUF and Franck SCHOEFS 14.1. Preventive maintenance 271 14.2. Maintenance based on time 273 14.3. Maintenance based on age 275 14.4. Inspection models 276 14.5. Structures with large lifetimes 283 14.6. Criteria for choosing a maintenance policy 284 14.7. Example of a corroded steel pipeline 285 14.8. Conclusion 290 14.9. Bibliography 290 Chapter 15. Practical Aspects: Industrial Implementation and Limitations in a Multi-criteria Context 293 Franck SCHOEFS and Bruno CAPRA 15.1. Introduction 293 15.2. Motorway concession with high performance requirements 296 15.3. Ageing of civil engineering structures: using field data to update predictions 303 15.4. Conclusion 307 15.5. Bibliography 308 Conclusion 311 Julien BAROTH, Franck SCHOEFS and Denys BREYSSE List of Symbols 315 List of Authors 323 Index 325

About the Author :
Julien Baroth is a professor at the?IUT Laboratoire of Grenoble University in?France. Denys Breysse is a professor?in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (GCE) at Bordeaux 1 University's Institute of Mechanics and Engineering (I2M) in France. D. Franck Schoefs is a professor at the Institute for Research in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM)?of Nantes University in France.