Life-Cycle Considerations in Risk-Informed Decisions
for Design of Civil Infrastructures
Civil structures and infrastructures, such as buildings, bridges, and other facilities, are constructed and built for long service lives; many for over 50 or 100 years. In this light, the performance of an engineered system over its useful life span is of major concern. The concern must include the assurance of a minimum level of reliability, which will necessarily require inspections, repair, and maybe even retrofitting or replacement. The whole life cost associated with this life-cycle performance, therefore, is the pertinent cost that ought to be the basis for determining the cost during the design stage; this will include the maintenance and potential damage costs, besides the initial cost, over the life of a system. In this regard, significant technical and economic uncertainties can be expected and are unavoidable; therefore, decisions required in the design of such systems must consider risk associated with the probability of non-performance and serious damage or failure. This paper will outline the importance of and described an approach for life-cycle consideration in formulating risk-informed decisions in the planning and design of infrastructure systems. The approach is illustrated with specific applications in civil engineering.
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