Framework for Consequence-based Management and Safety of Railroad Bridge Infrastructure Using Wireless Smart Sensors (WSS)

Moreu, Fernando; Spencer, Billie F., Jr.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/78094 Copy

Description

Title

Framework for Consequence-based Management and Safety of Railroad Bridge Infrastructure Using Wireless Smart Sensors (WSS)

Author(s)

• Moreu, Fernando
• Spencer, Billie F., Jr.

Issue Date

2015-06

Keyword(s)

• wireless sensors
• bridge maintenance
• railroad bridges
• monitoring
• fragility
• assessment
• decision making
• live load testing
• bridge networks

Abstract

To increase overall profitability, add capacity to rail operations, and comply with new federal regulations on bridge safety, North American railroads are exploring means to improve the management of their bridge networks. Current maintenance, repair, and replacement (MRR) decisions are informed by bridge inspections and ratings, which recommend observing the response of bridges under trains. However, an objective relationship between bridge responses, bridge service state condition, and the associated impact to railroad operations has yet to be established. If the consequences of MRR decisions could be better determined, then the railroads could more effectively allocate their limited resources. This paper develops an approach for consequence-based management of bridge networks, adopted from the field of seismic risk assessment, for making MRR decisions on a network-wide basis. The proposed framework employs fragility curves to relate service condition limit-states to bridge displacement traffic. The operational costs associated with these service conditions can be used to estimate the total costs of a given MRR policy. In this way, optimum MRR decisions can minimize the total network costs. Additionally, measured bridge data can be used to update periodically the fragilities. This framework provides a consistent approach for the prioritization of railroad bridge MRR decisions

Publisher

Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory Report Series 041

ISSN

1940-9826

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/78094

Sponsor(s)/Grant Number(s)

Financial support for this research was provided in part the American Association of Railroads (AAR) Technology Scanning Program; the O. H. Ammann Research Fellowship of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) - American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); the Talentia Fellowship (Junta de Andalucía, Spain); the Structural Engineering Association of Illinois (SEAOI); the Illinois Graduate College Dissertation Travel Committee at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC); the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA); the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships program (from the Department of Education of the United States); the Center for Global Studies and the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Illinois. In-kind funding was provided by the CN, BNSF, and NS railroads.

Copyright and License Information

Copyright held by the authors. All rights reserved.

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