ASSESSMENT FOR INTEGRITY OF STRUCTURES CONTAINING DEFECTS

Presenting the basic assessment principle of structural integrity firs t, this paper describes the current structural integrity assessment me thodologies with great emphasis on the deterministic and probabilistic R6. By comparison between the two kinds of structural integrity asses sment, the following conclusions were obtained: When using determinist ic assessment methods, the safety requirement aspect of structural int egrity can be guaranteed in most cases but with certain possibilities of loss in structural functionality. Although having its own problems, the probabilistic assessment method can generally provide a more accu rate description of structural integrity status, which leads to full u tilization of existing structures especially those containing defects. The other obvious advantage of the probabilistic assessment method is its ability to recognize the most effective measures for structural i ntegrity improvement. As a new trend, the combination of both determin istic and probabilistic assessment methodologies will yield more benef icial results. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.