On site investigations and laboratory testing on full scale elements for the characterization of an existing RC bridge

The assessment of the mechanical characteristics and of the degradation level of existing bridges is a topic of great relevance today. In this regard, the methodology proposed by the Italian "Guidelines for risk classification, safety assessment and structural health monitoring of existing bridges"represents a fundamental support in the whole evaluation process. In this paper, the first phases of an experimental and numerical research on an existing RC bridge which was scheduled for demolition are presented. This opportunity allows to carry out both on-site tests and, subsequently, laboratory tests on full-scale elements extracted from the bridge, which can be supported by Finite Element (FE) analyses of different levels of detail. In particular, in this paper a first numerical analyses have been carried out by assuming the mean values of all the material parameters in order to obtain the necessary information for the design of the experimental setup. Moreover a Montecarlo analysis has been also carried out to assess the influence of the statistic variability of material parameters on the structural response.