International Construction Specialty Conference of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (ICSC) (5th : 2015)

Deconstruction and maintenance of steel bridge using fatigue data and BIM Wokem, Christian; Subedi, Jishnu

Abstract

Design for deconstruction is one of the emerging concepts for sustainability. For existing structures, the concept can be extended to optimize maintenance schedule for different components. Many existing steel bridges are at a stage in their lives where decisions need to be made to either continue in existing condition, to strengthen or to deconstruct them. This decision is highly dependent on the fatigue resistance of the steel connections which is a function of remaining structural strength, service load, expected future use and other environmental factors. Over the years a great deal of research work has been done in assessing the fatigue life of steel structures. This study utilizes these fatigue information to carry out a life cycle assessment of bridge elements and layer the system using BIM. As the BIM system will apply economic analysis for maintaining the bridge versus deconstructing and rebuilding of a new bridge, it will be instrumental to optimize the decision on any intervention in the bridge.

Item Citations and Data

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada