ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT The assessment of deteriorating structural systems has been one of the major applications of probabilistic analysis and structural reliability theory. Nevertheless, looking back on over 40 years of research and development in this area, the outcome has been mixed. While a lot of progress has been made, important questions and challenges still have not been answered. Structural reliability methods still play a minor role in the management of existing deteriorating structures in practice. There are encouraging signs, e.g. the development of standards and guidelines for existing structures that rely at least partly on structural reliability methods. But there remain significant open challenges to the structural reliability community, some of which I discuss in this contribution.
