ABSTRACT
Bridges are subjected to various natural and/or human-induced hazards with considerable uncertainties arising from hazard characteristics, structural vulnerabilities, and damage consequences. Quantifying the associated risk requires the evaluation of a risk integral. However, its computation is incompatible with the prevailing risk estimation methods currently used in many bridge management systems (BMSs). Inaccurate risk assessment may result in the misallocation of often limited resources for risk mitigation. This paper presents a novel tabulation approach for accurate risk assessment that is also compatible with common BMS implementation. The proposed approach is built on the rigorous formulation of risk integrals. Nonetheless, it uses Gaussian quadrature to derive a series of weighted hazard scenarios that can be tabulated in BMSs to accurately tally the total risk. As a result, the proposed approach fills in the gap between accurate risk assessment with risk integrals and practical implementation in bridge management. Results from this study show that with the same number of hazard scenarios, the novel approach can significantly improve the accuracy of risk assessment. The potential of this approach in a multi-hazard setting is also discussed.
