New or existing, does it matter?

Abstract

Both when designing new and when evaluating existing structures, methods of analysis must be based on established engineering theory and practice. Also, the general principles of structural reliability regarding the treatment of uncertainties when verifying the established requirements apply to both, design and assessment. Taking further into account that new or existing civil engineering works are usually unique, either because they are prototypes or because they are exposed to specific conditions, from an engineering point of view, structural analysis and verification must be carried out, both in the design and in the assessment, under case-specific conditions according to the same principles. However, important differences exist between assessment and design, for example regarding the state of information and its updating through different types of information, the structural condition, reliability requirements, verification methods or decision options. Such differences, which are briefly summarized in the contribution, can often lead to a high level of conservatism when using design-oriented methods for assessment purposes. There is therefore a need to develop a generally recognized, coherent and harmonized set of rules for the assessment of existing structures. The CEN Technical Specification for assessment and retrofitting partially closes this gap, but only establishes principles on assessmentspecific reliability aspects. The consistent application of these generic assessment rules in practice requires further assumptions, or even case-specific developments. Practical applications are therefore of paramount importance in identifying relevant issues to consider in the future development of assessment methods and codes.