PRESS RELEASE

Probabilistic Assessment of Existing Structures
Edited by D. Diamantidis
A new publication from the Joint Committee on Structure Safety (JCSS)

The aim of the activities of the Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS) is to promote matters within the field of structural reliability at an inter-association level. Among these matters the reliability based assessment of existing structures has been identified as a topic of major importance. In fact the assessment of existing structures is getting more and more important also due to social and economical reasons, while most codes deal explicitly only with design situations of new structures. 
The assessment of an existing structure may however differ very much from the design of a new one. One should bear for example in mind, that due to deterioration and damage it is general practice to inspect existing structures and if necessary to repair and/or strengthen them. While, initially, the various uncertainties related to loads and resistance parameters must be assessed a priori resulting in appropriate safe codified design provisions, actual observations update the prior assessment. Consequently, regarding the state of information the situation in assessing existing structures is completely different from that during design. In addition, special attention is paid to specific parts of the existing structure and to a probably limited part of items with a real risk of damage according to the observed behaviour of the structure. On the other hand, the interpretation and the analysis of the additional information may not be a simple matter.
Therefore, specific procedures and tools are required in order to judge the safety of existing structures. Such procedures and tools have been reviewed within this project of the JCSS and have been thoroughly discussed in various meetings during the last six years. Thereby, the following basic goals for such procedures have been set: 
a) to standardise methods and terminology;
b) to be operational for the consulting engineers;
c) to be generally applicable for various materials and various structural types;
d) to be useful as guidelines of pre-codification state i.e. to build the basis of future codes, standards or code type of recommendations.
The results obtained within this project are documented in the present report. Although the nature of the report is educational, it contains practical and operational recommendations and rules for the assessment of existing structures also illustrated in characteristic examples and real case studies.

N° ISBN: 2-912143-24-1	176 pp.	Net price: 54.88 EUROS + mailing costs

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