@article{SteenbergenRaphaelDJMSykoraDiamantidisetal., author = {Steenbergen, Raphael D. J. M., and S{\´y}kora, Miroslav and Diamantidis, Dimitris and Holicky, Milan and Vrouwenvelder, Ton}, title = {Economic and human safety reliability levels for existing structures}, series = {Structural concrete}, volume = {16}, journal = {Structural concrete}, number = {3}, publisher = {Ernst \& Sohn, a Wiley brand}, doi = {10.1002/suco.201500022}, pages = {323 -- 332}, abstract = {Specifying the target reliability levels is one of the key issues in the assessment of existing structures. For a majority of existing buildings and infrastructures, the design life has been reached or will be reached in the near future. These structures need to be reassessed in order to verify their safety. Eurocodes provide a general basis primarily intended for the design of new structures, but the basic principles can be used for assessing existing buildings, too. Reliability levels are generally based on both economic optimization and criteria for human safety. In this study, both methods are elaborated for existing structures. It appears that the requirement for the same target reliability for existing and new structures is uneconomical. Further, cost optimization seems to yield rather low reliability levels and human safety criteria often become the critical factor. The study concludes with practical guidelines for establishing reliability indices for existing structures linked to Eurocode principles.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{HolickyDiamantidisSykora, author = {Holick{\´y}, Milan and Diamantidis, Dimitris and S{\´y}kora, Miroslav}, title = {Effects of Quality Control on Reliability of Reinforced Concrete Structures according to Eurocodes}, series = {fib Symposium 2016 : Performance-Based Approaches for Concrete Structures, 14, 2016, Cape town}, booktitle = {fib Symposium 2016 : Performance-Based Approaches for Concrete Structures, 14, 2016, Cape town}, abstract = {The effect of quality control on structural reliability represents an increasingly important concern of designers and thus is investigated in this contribution, focusing on reinforced concrete structures. Recent European documents for structural design - Eurocodes, fib Model Code 2010 and ISO 2394:2015 for general principles on structural reliability indicate that the partial factors may be adjusted to available information on the quality control of structures. In particular, the partial factors for concrete and steel strength may be significantly reduced taking into account actual execution quality and related available data. Using probabilistic methods of structural reliability, effects for execution quality are investigated in this contribution considering two fundamental reinforced concrete members: a beam (or slab) exposed to bending and a short column exposed to compression. It is shown that the reliability of reinforced concrete members may vary with the load ratio of variable and permanent actions. It appears also that the structural members of a basic quality, designed using unreduced partial factors, have a greater reliability level than the members of an increased quality, designed using the partial factors reduced according to EN 1992 1 1. This provides the basis for recommendations for further code developments.}, language = {en} }