ABSTRACT
In the next 20 years, nearly half of the bridges in Japan would be in service more than 50 years. These bridges face an increasing risk of ageing failure as well as other extreme ‘forces’. Thus it is necessary to ensure sufficient redundancy in order that these aged bridges may remain functional or at least collapse-safe under design loads in view of the reduction in resistance due to ageing or extreme events. The purpose of the present study is to give a reasonable quantitative method to evaluate the redundancy of aged truss bridges with the help of finite-element (FE) analyses. In the present study, structural redundancy of a truss bridge in Japan is investigated through case studies for a five-span continuous steel truss bridge.
