Management of Bridge infrastructural Networks in seismic Areas

This study deepens key issues related to the seismic emergency management and deterioration state assessment of roadway and railway infrastructural networks by proposing a series of procedures and methodologies through the use of scientific-based analyses in the field of optimal management of infrastructural assets. This thesis is subdivided in several chapters, in which, the issues of quantification of the bridge structures’ deterioration state are intertwined with those related to the estimation of the seismic vulnerability assessment, from punctual level (single bridge) to territorial scale (infrastructural network). The key topics discussed in this work are, at punctual level, statistical analyses on the effectiveness of in-situ investigations for the bridges’ seismic fragility estimation, sensitivity analyses on the influence of geometrical parameters on the seismic vulnerability assessment and the construction of fragility curves for bridges subjected to deterioration of key structural components. At territorial scale, analyses of the restoring costs for bridge stocks, construction of life-cycle curves for bridges subjected to deterioration, simulations of time-dependent earthquake scenarios for infrastructural networks and procedures for the management of seismic emergency for railway networks are presented.