Handbook for Bridge Inspections - TSP2

5 Damage
Evaluation
Fundamentals
5.1 General
When evaluating a damage on a bridge the fo ll owing must be decided:
Basis for Evaluation
of Damage
Types of Oa mage
• Dclcnninc the Type of Damage
• Detennine the Consequence of Damage to the bridge
• Dctcnnine the Cause of Damage
In most cases the evaluation ofa damage consists of a visual
check, sometimes followed by measurements and ma.terial investigations.
However, in some special cases, it may be necessary to
carry out calculations of structural capacity, economical considerations
and/or in vestigation by implementing long lenn instrumentati
on survey on the bridge in order to establish rel iab Ie information
to evaluate the damage correct.
Deg reel Consequence
of Damage
Cause of Damage
In order to established a unified description of damag e, the listed
types of damage in chapter 5.2 have to be used.
Any damage to be recorded shall be assessed by consjdering the
degree of damage and the consequence of damage.
As part of a complete damage evaluation, al so the cause to the
damage has to be determined. The most common causes of damage
are li sted in chapter 5.6.
5.2 Types of Damage
The most common "Types of Damage" are listed below with a
brief explanatory text connected to each of them. A more extensive
and detailed description of each type of damage inelu sive examples
are given in chapter 9 The Damage Evaluation Catalogue.
Each type of damage is given a three-digit code where the first
digit indicates the material or element the damage referred to, and
the second and third indicate the type of damage. This in order to
ease the registration of damage in the data base, and make it possible
to scan the data/and make statistics. It should be noticed that
one defect may consists of several Types o f Damage.