Life cycle cost analysis of road bridges equipped with structural health monitoring systems

The thesis illustrates the Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of road bridges equipped with Structural Health Monitoring systems (defined LCCA-SHM) framework developed in the research project. LCCA-SHM framework is designed as a support tool for the infrastructures management. The main intent of the research is to promote the implementation in the common practice of the alert devices to develop the realization of smart structures capable to timely predict the structural damages and to impose the most cost and safety effective operation and maintenance planning based on the collected data. LCCA-SHM framework comprises a general formulation and a strategy developed to apply the proposed cost model to a monitored bridge.