Performance evaluation and remaining life prediction of an existing RC bridge by J-BMS

This paper describes the methods of performance evaluation and remaining life prediction for an aged reinforced concrete (RC) T-girder bridge via visual inspection data. The Bridge Management System (J-BMS) that was previously developed by the authors, and which is capable of forecasting the deterioration process of existing bridge members, was applied to evaluate the safety indices (soundness score) and re-maining life of the target bridge based on these test results. Using these methods, the remaining life of an aged RC-T girder bridge(SK-bridge) can be quantitatively estimated by applying the bridge rating expert (BREX) system, which is a subsystem of the J-BMS RC version that incorporates with the field inspection data. In this study, visual inspection was carried out on the aged bridge(SKbridge) by professional visual inspectors, during which all variations of the inspection results were evaluated using a five-step question-naire. As a result, it was found that the soundness score (safety index) and remaining life predictions were influenced by the learning (supervised) data selection. Additionally, the predicted remaining lives were verified through concrete core tests extracted from main girders and deck slabs, and cross-section cutting-off girder tests.