ABSTRACT
In this paper, a procedure to update the structural reliability considering the effect of spatial steel corrosion distribution is proposed. The covariance matrix decomposition method is applied to simulate the spatial random fields of the associated random variables in the deterioration prediction model. When the observational data at discrete locations on the aging reinforced concrete (RC) bridge structures can be obtained, the spatial random fields are updated by particle filter for stochastic interpolation. Subsequently, the structural reliability of RC bridge structures can be updated simultaneously. As an illustrative example, the reliability analysis of the RC bridge girder considering spatial steel corrosion using the observational data is presented. The observational data from visual inspection results of crack width is used to update the structural reliability.
