New computational platform of finite element reliability analysis for efficient safety assessment of bridges employing MIDAS/Civil

Abstract

As the failure of bridges can cause significant damage to human life and property, the structural safety of bridges must be evaluated and monitored. In this study, a new computational platform that enables reliability analysis in conjunction with sophisticated finite element analysis for the risk-informed design and maintenance of bridges is proposed. In this regard, a software package for reliability analysis, i.e., Finite Element Reliability Using MATLAB (FERUM), is integrated with MIDAS/Civil, which is a widely-used commercial software package specialized for bridges. To control MIDAS/Civil during a reliability analysis, a control module of graphical user interface is added to FERUM. In addition, a recently-proposed algorithm is introduced in the developed platform to accurately locate the design points for reliability analysis based on the first-order reliability method. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are compared with those of a sampling-based method via a numerical example, and the reliability-based safety of an actual bridge in the Republic of Korea is assessed for several vehicle load models. The new finite element reliability analysis platform is expected to enable efficient reliability-based evaluations of bridge safety.