ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Recently, many bridge management systems have been developed in Japan to establish a rational maintenance program for existing bridges. Most of those bridge management systems use the concept of Life-Cycle Cost (LCC), because it is a useful concept in reducing the overall cost and achieving an appropriate allocation of resources. Using a bridge management system, it becomes possible to examine and compare many alternatives of maintenance plans. In this paper, an attempt is made to improve the bridge management system that was developed so far by introducing a new multi-objective genetic algorithm so as to discuss the superiority of several maintenance plans in a more detail manner. By introducing the new multi-objective genetic algorithm, it is possible to obtain several available solutions that have different structural life spans, safety levels and LCC values. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the applicability of the bridge management system proposed here. Especially, the comparison of maintenance plans for the extension of service life and maintenance plans for renewal or rebuilding is made by changing the bridge span.
1 INTRODUCTION
