Importance of the traffic model in the reliability estimation of highway bridges

Abstract

Road bridges are exposed to stochastic traffic loadings that are not simply determined. The international codes for the design and assessment of highway bridges provide some standard trucks that can be used in the design process. Knowing that the traffic can vary considerably from one bridge to another, standard trucks may lead to poorly estimate the reliability in the assessment process. So, the sensitivity of the reliability indices to the load models will be discussed, on one hand by considering the standard truck given by the French Fascicule 61 and on the other hand by adopting real vehicle data from existing weigh-in-motion station. A set of reinforced concrete bridges will be used for the application.