Maintenance of Important Infrastructures – Objectives and Strategies

Infrastructures have to meet certain requirements during their service life in order to fulfil particular economical and societal needs. These requirements can be categorized into four groups: proper functioning, economy, society & culture and environment. However, until today investigations on the selection of maintenance strategies are primarily cost-oriented. Maintenance strategies de- veloped on the basis of such investigations do not necessarily lead to an optimal solution with re- gards to requirements other than economic efficiency. This paper deals with the necessary frame- work for an appropriate selection of maintenance strategies for infrastructures. A simulation proce- dure is presented which allows for the development and examination of maintenance strategies with regard to different maintenance objectives. The procedure uses Monte Carlo simulation technique and takes into account data in relation to the structural properties, possible deterioration mechanisms, the effect of maintenance measures and the costs.