Lifetime seismic risk assessment of bridges with construction and aging considerations

The seismic risk analysis of bridges in the construction period has not drawn due attention in the seismic risk assessment of the whole bridge life cycle. Therefore, a seismic risk framework, including the bridge construction period, was developed to complete the full bridge life-cycle seismic risk analysis. A case study of this newly developed framework based on a continuous beam bridge considering different construction methods was conducted for life-cycle seismic risk analysis, where the material aging factor during the operation period was also incorporated. This two-stage seismic risk analysis integrating the construction and operation stages of bridges could provide a complete understanding of the seismic risk of the whole bridge life cycle. It also enables the quantification of the impact of factors like atmospheric environment, seismic intensity, multiple earthquakes, and construction methods through the whole life-cycle seismic loss estimation. The construction stage was found to account for 5% or more in the whole life-cycle seismic loss, which could be significantly reduced by selecting construction methods that result in the least seismic risk during construction.