TY - CHAP A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Markova, Jana A1 - Charters Morais, Eduardo T1 - Compressive Strength of Historic Masonry based on Destructive and Non-Destructive Test Results T2 - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Protection of Historical Constructions (PROHITECH'17), July 12-15, 2017, Lisbon, Portugal Y1 - 2017 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320016406_Compressive_Strength_of_Historic_Masonry_based_on_Destructive_and_Non-Destructive_Test_Results ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Jung, Karel T1 - Target reliability for new and existing railway civil engineering structures T2 - Handbook of RAMS in Railway Systems : theory and practice N2 - The specification of target reliability levels and risk acceptance criteria is one of the key issues of design and reliability assessment of existing railway stru ctures including bridges, tunnels or secondary struc-ures like noise barriers. Target reliability levels obtained by optimisation of the total cost, related to a required working life of the structure, are critically compared with human safety criteria based on group risks, intended to avoid accidents with a large number of fatalitie s. Practical applications of the theoretical principles are demonstrated by the examples of a railway bridge, railway tunnel and road bridge over an important railway line. The examples illustrate on how probabilistic reliability analysis and risk optimisation can support decisions about alternative strategies to achieve the optimal designs complying with the requirements on human safety. The contribution reveals that target relia bility levels for civil engineering structures recommended in various normative documents are inconsistent in terms of the values and the criteria according to which the appropriate values are to be specified. The optimal target reliabilities from economic point of view primarily depend on failure consequences and costs of safety measures. Y1 - 2017 SN - 9781315269351 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1201/b21983-20 PB - CRC Press ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav T1 - Target Reliability Levels Based on Societal, Economic and Environmental Consequences of Structural Failure T2 - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Structural Safety & Reliability (ICOSSAR 2017), 6-10 August 2017, Vienna, Austria N2 - Target reliability levels are derived by optimizing initial structural costs and considering three major types of potential consequences of structural failure: a) direct and indirect economic losses, b) societal consequences resulting from fatalities and injuries, and c) environmental impacts. The guidance on how to e stimate and combine these consequences is provided; societal consequences are expressed using the Life Quality Index (LQI) concept. The case study focused on a generic load-bearing member reveals that target reliability levels for structural design are commonly dominated by economic criteria. Y1 - 2017 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319123444_Target_Reliability_Levels_Based_on_Societal_Economic_and_Environmental_Consequences_of_Structural_Failure ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Marková, Jana A1 - Rózsás, Árpád T1 - Assessment of compressive strength of historic masonry using non-destructive and destructive techniques JF - Construction and Building Materials N2 - Masonry structures were built by various techniques using different materials, the properties of which exhibit a considerable scatter dependent on periods of construction and region-specific conditions. For historic structures with a heritage value, various non- or minor-destructive tests (NDTs) are commonly applied, while the application of destructive tests (DTs) is minimized. The contribution is based on investigations of 15 historic stone and clay brick masonry structures, for which NDT strengths of masonry units are verified by DTs. The proposed operational approach makes it possible to account for statistical uncertainty due to a limited number of DTs used to calibrate NDTs. KW - Calibration KW - Clay bricks KW - Compressive strength KW - Mortar KW - Non-destructive test KW - Statistical analysis KW - Stone masonry KW - Uncertainty Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.10.180 VL - 193 IS - December SP - 196 EP - 210 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav T1 - Effects of Quality Control on Reliability of Reinforced Concrete Structures according to Eurocodes T2 - fib Symposium 2016 : Performance-Based Approaches for Concrete Structures, 14, 2016, Cape town N2 - 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. KW - Eurocodes KW - partial factors KW - quality control KW - reliability Y1 - 2016 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310616676_Effects_of_quality_control_on_reliability_of_reinforced_concrete_structures_according_to_Eurocodes ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Rózsás, Árpád A1 - Barnardo-Viljoen, Celeste A1 - Retief, Johan Verster A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris T1 - Risk Based Design of Infrastructures under Extreme Actions due to Environmental Change T2 - Life-cycle of engineering systems: emphasis on sustainable civil infrastructure, Symposium of the International Association for Life-Cycle Civil Engineering (IALCCE), 2016, Delft N2 - Environmental and climate change is a global issue that will and has already impacted the frequency and intensity of natural hazards in many regions throughout the world. Consequently, the actions on structures will be changing and present design practices will need to be adapted to provide for reliable structures with service lifetimes spanning over decades and centuries. A submitted review of present environmental and climate change information is focused on the distinct, but complementary climatic conditions of Central Europe and South Africa. An outline of the basis of structural design accounting for extreme wind and snow loads is presented and recommendations for future risk-based design procedures are discussed. Issues to consider include: a) use of extreme value models; b) implementation of changes in distribution parameters to obtain extremes with long return periods; c) consideration of the rate of the change. The example of a representative structure illustrates the effects of climatic actions on structural reliability. It appears that uncertainties related to the lack of observations hinder drawing strong conclusions concerning appropriate modifications of design procedures due to environmental and climate change. Uncertainties in the prediction of environmental and climate change have a direct bearing on optimal levels of reliability and the subsequent derivation of design values. Y1 - 2018 PB - Taylor & Francis ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Retief, Johan Verster A1 - Barnardo-Viljoen, Celeste T1 - On Standardization of the Reliability Basis of Structural Design T2 - ICASP12 : 12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, Vancouver, Canada, July 12-15, 2015 N2 - The principles of structural reliability are sufficiently advanced to be used extensively to develop design standards even at international level. The concept of limit states is generally accepted and implemented. Present standards are however to a large extent based on past experience, rather than on quantitative reliability modeling. It appears that reliability principles and models can bridge the gap between probabilistic assessment and operational design. Representative theoretical models are presented to indicate how judgment based reliability concepts can be complemented or replaced by the use of such models. The importance of reliability levels, reference period, design working life, specified characteristic values of basic variables and methods to derive their design values from reliability procedures are demonstrated. On this basis a standardized basis of structural design can be formulated to convert the reliability principles (such as provided by ISO 2394) into operational design procedures (such as used by EN 1990 and other standards). It is concluded that reliability principles and models could contribute further to international harmonization of structural design. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0076062 PB - The University of British Columbia CY - Vancouver ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Tanner, Peter A1 - de Diego, Ana A1 - Lara Sarache, Carlos A1 - Prieto, Miguel A1 - Hingorani, Ramón A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Menéndez Ondina, Antonio A1 - Croce, Pietro A1 - Bartelletti, Raffaello A1 - Beconcini, Maria Luisa A1 - Formichi, Paolo A1 - Marsili, Francesca A1 - Muzzi, Martina A1 - Rosso, Elisa A1 - Toprak, Selcuk A1 - Inel, Mehmet A1 - Koc, Cem A1 - Nacaroglu, Engin A1 - Senel, Sevket Murat T1 - Operational methods for the assessment and management of aging infrastructure N2 - The Leonardo da Vinci Project, “Innovation Transfer in Risk Assessment and Management of Aging Infrastructures”, CZ/13/LLP-LdV/TOI/134014, addresses the urgent need to train students, young engineers and professionals in the assessment of existing infrastructures. The future of the construction industry lies in moving from new constructions towards the maintenance, repair and rehabilitation of existing structures, particularly of aging infrastructures. Risk management consisting of risk assessment and risk control of existing structure therefore plays thereby an important role. The assessment of existing infrastructures is an imperative issue of great economic significance in most countries around the world, as more than 50 % of all construction activities concerns existing buildings, bridges and other civil engineering works. At present, the Eurocodes which will be used in all CEN Member countries are primarily focused on the design of new structures. Additional operational rules for existing structures are still missing. The international standard ISO 13822 provides only general principles for the assessment of existing structures which should be further developed for their effective operational use in practice. The overall procedure of risk management of aging infrastructures is therefore an urgent issue of great economic significance in most countries around the world. This is primarily caused due to the fact that many infrastructures are affected by action effects, fatigue and environmental influences, and inevitably deteriorate. Moreover, available resources for the maintenance, repair or possible replacement of infrastructures are always limited. Typical questions and problems which must be solved in this context can be summarized as follows: • What is the current state of a particular infrastructure? • What is an acceptable level of the relevant risk? • Which aspects are critical to sustainable performance? • What is the optimum life-cycle cost? • What is the best long-term funding strategy? The proposed project highlights the above problems and focusses also on vocational training in risk management and assessment of aging infrastructure in the partner countries (CZ, DE, ES, IT and TR). The current project addresses the urgent need for practical implementation of principles of the management and risk assessment of existing infrastructures in all the partner countries. The project is supported by the Czech Chamber of Chartered Engineers (ČKAIT). The project consortium, under the leadership of the Klokner Institute of the Czech Technical University in Prague (KI CTU), consists of five other partners, including research institutions and universities from three EU Member States (DE, ES, IT) as well as one associated country (TR), and also the Secondary Technical School of Civil Engineering in Ceske Budejovice (CZ). All researchers within the partnership are involved in research projects dealing with reliability assessment of existing structures. They participate in the national and international standardization activities within the international organizations CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) and ISO (International Standardization Organisation). The project outcomes consist of vocational training materials based on international research and relevant standard committee’s activities, and on the significant experience gained from case studies, and on selected results obtained from the previous projects of the Leonardo da Vinci programme. In particular, the experience gained by the partners of the present consortium from the completed project on vocational training related to assessment of existing structures is utilized. Available innovations are transferred to undergraduate and graduate students, practising engineers and local government representatives. The developed training materials are of practical use in offering illustrative examples and several case studies. All the project outcomes are based on documents of the international research organization, Joint Committee on Structural Safety JCSS and international research projects, selected outcomes of the previous project of the Leonardo da Vinci programme (developed by five partners of the present consortium in 2013-2015) and also on background documents to the new European and international standards. Particular outcomes of the proposed project include practical handbooks, software tools, web-sites, e-learning, courses and seminars organized in the partners´ home countries. The project outcomes will also be offered to other European countries through code committees work, lectures and the project web-sites. It is foreseen that the outcomes being used by engineers, designers, technicians, and representatives of public authorities involved in planning and management will have an impact on the risk-based management of infrastructures. One of the important project outcomes is the present Handbook 2 “Operational Methods for the Assessment and Management of Aging Infrastructure”, which is focussed on operational techniques for the assessment of aging infrastructures supplemented by illustrative case studies developed according to ISO 13822 and Eurocodes for different structures and materials. From the mentioned project also result Handbook 1, where general procedures of risk-management and assessment of aging infrastructures are presented, and Handbook 3, where operational techniques for the assessment of aging infrastructures supplemented by illustrative case studies are presented with a more basic approach. Handbook 2 consists of eleven chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction. Chapter 2 summarizes current applicable standards and codes for existing structures. Chapter 3 reviews survey methods. The remaining chapters are devoted to the illustration of relevant case studies, referring to the assessment of different existing infrastructures. In particular, chapter 4 refers to a commercial building, chapter 5 to a r.c. building damaged by corrosion, chapter 6 to silos, chapter 7 to pipelines and water supply systems, chapter 8 to tanks, chapter 9 to historical aqueducts, chapter 10 to bridges and chapter 11 to dams and flood protection systems. In each case studies the entire procedure of the assessment is illustrated step by step emphasizing references to relevant Codes and in particular to ISO 13822. It is believed that the material of this handbook is presented in an understandable way, referring to several case studies. A number of references mentioned in each chapter provide additional background materials, further guidance and information useful to widen the significance and the field of application of the assessment methods illustrated for each case study. Pisa and Prague, 2015 Y1 - 2015 SN - 9788882501471 PB - Tipografía editrice Pisana CY - Pisa, Italia ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Holický, Milan ED - Zingoni, Alphose T1 - Reliability Differentiation in the Eurocodes T2 - Advances and trends in structural engineering, mechanics and computation (SEMC 2010) : proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation, 6 - 8 September 2010, Cape Town, South Africa N2 - Structural Eurocodes offer the opportunity of harmonized design standards for the European construction markets and the rest of the world. Eurocodes aim at delivering structures with an appropriate degree of reliability and in an economic way. The reliability requirements of the Eurocodes and the associated background philosophy are discussed in this contribution. The definition and the measure of reliability in standards and especially in the Eurocodes are reviewed. The procedures for selecting target and acceptable re-liability levels are summarized and the reliability differentiation in the Eurocodes is highlighted. Global failure aspects including robustness are briefly discussed. Finally examples from case studies are provided demonstrating the applicability and the benefits from the reliability differentiation approach. Y1 - 2010 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281290434_Reliability_Differentiation_in_the_Eurocodes SN - 978-0-415-58472-2 PB - CRC Press/Balkema ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav T1 - Risk and reliability acceptance criteria for civil engineering structures T2 - Structural Reliability and Modelling in Mechanics Conference, Ostrava, Czech Republic, May 2016 N2 - The specification of risk and reliability acceptance criteria is a key issue of structural design and verification of existing structures. Current target reliability levels in standards appear to have considerable scatter. Critical review of risk acceptance approaches to societal, economic and environmental risk indicates that an optimal design strategy is mostly dominated by economic aspects while human safety aspects need to be verified only in special cases. It is recommended to specify the target levels considering economic optimisation and the marginal life-saving costs principle, as both these approaches take into account the failure consequences and costs of safety measures. Y1 - 2016 SP - 1 EP - 10 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris T1 - Probabilistic updating in the reliability assessment of industrial heritage structures JF - Heron N2 - Assessment of existing structures should be based on the actual as-built conditions concerning geometry, material properties, loading and environmental conditions. A crucial step of the assessment consists in updating of prior information by newly obtained measurements which may be conducted by Bayesian approach. Updating of probabilistic distributions of basic variables or direct updating of failure probability can be effectively used. Application of theoretical principles is illustrated by a case study of a historic factory built in 1900s. The paper is a tribute to Ton Vrouwenvelder for his essential contributions to developments of theory and promotion of practical applications of probabilistic assessment of existing structures. Y1 - 2016 UR - http://www.heronjournal.nl/59-23/1.pdf SN - 0046-7316 VL - 59 IS - 2/3 PB - Stevin-Laboratorium, TU Delft CY - Delft ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Jung, K. A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris ED - Akiyama, Mitsuyoshi ED - Furuta, Hitoshi ED - Frangopol, Dan M. T1 - Target reliability levels for assessment of existing structures considering economic and societal aspects T2 - Life-Cycle of Structural Systems N2 - Specification of the target reliability levels is one of the key issues of the assessment of existing structures. ISO 13822:2010 and ISO 2394:1998 indicate procedures for deriving the target reliability levels by optimisation of the total cost related to an assumed remaining working life of a structure. In the submitted study this approach is applied to estimate the target reliability levels of an existing structural member in conjunction with the human safety criteria. Obtained results are critically compared with the recommendations given in present standards. It appears that the requirement on the same target reliability levels for existing structures as for new structures is uneconomical. Further, the cost optimisation seems to yield rather low reliability levels and human safety criteria become commonly decisive for specification of the target reliabilities of existing structures. Y1 - 2014 SN - 9780429227196 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1201/b17618-121 SP - 838 EP - 845 PB - CRC Press CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Steenbergen, R.D.J.M. A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Vrouwenvelder, A.C.W.M. T1 - Economic and human safety reliability levels for existing structures JF - Structural Concrete. JOurnal of the fib N2 - 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. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/suco.201500022 VL - 16 SP - 323 EP - 332 PB - Wiley ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Holický, Milan A1 - Diamantidis, Dimitris A1 - Sýkora, Miroslav A1 - Marková, Jana A1 - Vrouwenfelder, Ton A1 - Tanner, Peter A1 - Arteaga, Angel A1 - Lara Sarache, Carlos A1 - Croce, Pietro A1 - Toprak, Selcuk A1 - Senel, Sevket Murat A1 - Inel, Mehmet T1 - Methods for the risk assessment and risk-based management of aging infrastructure N2 - The Leonardo da Vinci Project, “Innovation Transfer in Risk Assessment and Management of Aging Infrastructures”, CZ/13/LLP-LdV/TOI/134014, addresses the urgent need to train students, young engineers and professionals in the assessment of existing infrastructures. The future of the construction industry lies in moving from new constructions towards the maintenance, repair and rehabilitation of existing structures, particularly of aging infrastructures. Risk management consisting of risk assessment and risk control of existing structure therefore plays thereby an important role. The assessment of existing infrastructures is an imperative issue of great economic significance in most countries around the world, as more than 50 % of all construction activities concerns existing buildings, bridges and other civil engineering works. At present, the Eurocodes which will be used in all CEN Member countries are primarily focused on the design of new structures. Additional operational rules for existing structures are still missing. The international standard ISO 13822 provides only general principles for the assessment of existing structures which should be further developed for their effective operational use in practice. The overall procedure of risk management of aging infrastructures is therefore an urgent issue of great economic significance in most countries around the world. This is primarily caused due to the fact that many infrastructures are affected by action effects, fatigue and environmental influences, and inevitably deteriorate. Moreover, available resources for the maintenance, repair or possible replacement of infrastructures are always limited. Typical questions and problems which must be solved in this context can be summarized as follows: • What is the current state of a particular infrastructure? • What is an acceptable level of the relevant risk? • Which aspects are critical to sustainable performance? • What is the optimum life-cycle cost? • What is the best long-term funding strategy? The proposed project highlights the above problems and focusses also on vocational training in risk management and assessment of aging infrastructure in the partner countries (CZ, DE, ES, IT and TR). The current project addresses the urgent need for practical implementation of principles of the management and risk assessment of existing infrastructures in all the partner countries. The project is supported by the Czech Chamber of Chartered Engineers (ČKAIT). The project consortium, under the leadership of the Klokner Institute of the Czech Technical University in Prague (KI CTU), consists of five other partners, including research institutions and universities from three EU Member States (DE, ES, IT) as well as one associated country (TR), and also the Secondary Technical School of Civil Engineering in Ceske Budejovice (CZ). All researchers within the partnership are involved in research projects dealing with reliability assessment of existing structures. They participate in the national and international standardization activities within the international organizations CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) and ISO (International Standardization Organisation). The project outcomes consist of vocational training materials based on international research and relevant standard committee’s activities, and on the significant experience gained from case studies, and on selected results obtained from the previous projects of the Leonardo da Vinci programme. In particular, the experience gained by the partners of the present consortium from the completed project on vocational training related to assessment of existing structures is utilized. Available innovations are transferred to undergraduate and graduate students, practising engineers and local government representatives. The developed training materials are of practical use in offering illustrative examples and several case studies. All the project outcomes are based on documents of the international research organization, Joint Committee on Structural Safety JCSS and international research projects, selected outcomes of the previous project of the Leonardo da Vinci programme (developed by five partners of the present consortium in 2013-2015) and also on background documents to the new European and international standards. Particular outcomes of the proposed project include practical handbooks, software tools, web-sites, e-learning, courses and seminars organized in the partners´ home countries. The project outcomes will also be offered to other European countries through code committees work, lectures and the project web-sites. It is foreseen that the outcomes being used by engineers, designers, technicians, and representatives of public authorities involved in planning and management will have an impact on the risk-based management of infrastructures. One of the important project outcomes is the present Handbook 1 “Methods for the Risk Assessment and Risk-Based Management of Aging Infrastructure”, which is focussed on general procedures of risk-management and assessment of aging infrastructures. The methodologies provided are independent of the type of structure and material, and are compatible with the background methodologies used in the Eurocodes. Operational techniques for the assessment of aging infrastructures supplemented by illustrative case studies are presented in Handbook 2 and Handbook 3, which also result from the mentioned project. Handbook 1 consists of ten chapters and one annex. Chapter 1 gives a brief overview of the basic concepts used in the management and risk assessment of existing structures, supplemented by the basic definitions and terminology. Chapter 2 summarizes current applicable standards, codes and recommendations related to actions and environmental influences on existing structures. Chapter 3 reviews the most important degradation models due to environmental influences. Fatigue effects are treated separately in Chapter 4. The following Chapters, 5, 6, 7 and 8, are devoted step by step to the entire procedure of risk management, including probabilistic reliability analysis, consequence analysis, risk evaluation and risk assessment based on risk acceptance criteria, and consequently provide important information supporting decisions concerning the safety of the structure. The last two Chapters, 9 and 10, illustrate instructive case studies concerning risk management and risk assessment of road tunnels. Annex A presents basic statistical methods and techniques used in the evaluation and updating of available data required for probability and consequence analysis. It is believed that the material of this handbook is presented in an understandable way, illustrated by several realistic examples. A number of references mentioned in each chapter provide additional background materials, further guidance and information useful for particular practical applications. Prague and Regensburg, 2014 Y1 - 2014 SN - 978-80-01-05611-0 PB - Czech Technical University in Prague, Klokner Institute CY - Prague ER -