01627664

Component

A large number of reinforced concrete (RC) bridges located in the U.S. are at least 50 years old and during their service life are exposed to environmental stressors. As a consequence, the bridges have degraded due to ingress of aggressive ions, such as chlorides. Although the deterioration of bridges has been studied in the field and numerical models have been proposed for it, the effect of the environmental condition and particularly climate change has not been investigated with a region-specific perspective. The environmental parameters, such as temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation, have changed because of climate change effects. The variation of environmental parameters have several impacts on the occurrence of extreme events, such as scour and flooding. In addition, climate change is believed to affect the continuous deterioration of RC bridges through its impact on various environmental parameters. Therefore, it is necessary to study how the deterioration mechanisms will change under the expected climate change scenarios. The outcome of this effort can be implemented to predict the future condition of bridges more realistically. Therefore, the stakeholders can better plan for necessary maintenance and repair actions, which lead to an optimized bridge management system.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHD35 Standing Committee on Bridge Management.

01618707

17-04849

English

14p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Chlorides; Climate change; Deterioration by environmental action; Environmental impacts; Humidity; Mathematical models; Reinforced concrete bridges; Temperature

Bridges and other structures; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-04849

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 11:51AM