Life-Cycle Cost analysis and management of reinforced/prestressed concrete structures

Infrastructure is essential to the social and economic development of a city and to the quality of life of the people living in the city However, the increasing stocks of public infrastructure and serious deterioration of infrastructure systems in many cities present great financial, safety, technical and operational challenges to government organizations in charge of public infrastructure development and management. It is recognized that an integrated whole life-cycle design and management strategy needs to be taken in order to meet these challenges. In this paper, the deterioration mechanisms of reinforced/prestressed concrete structures are examined as a first step towards the development of a methodology for the whole life-cycle design of reinforced/prestressed concrete structures. Then, some existing life-cycle cost analysis models are reviewed. Finally, an integer-programming model based on the Markov decision process is developed, in which Markov chains are used to model the change of condition index and integer-programming employed to optimize annual management actions and annual budget allocation, subject to various types of constraints. This Markov-based optimization model would provide a useful tool for life-cycle cost analysis and management in a network of many reinforced/prestressed concrete structures.