Lifetime-Oriented Design Concepts

Lifetime-Related Structural Damage Evolution

Structures deteriorate during their lifetimes, e.g. their original quality decreases. In terms of structural safety, this reduces the original safety margin, a process, which also can be described as an increase of structural damage. If, in such deterioration, the safety parameter decreases below the admissible safety limit, or the structural damage parameter increases beyond the admissible damage limit, then the structural service life will be terminated. If the failure safety value or the structural damage parameter both reach unity, the structure (theoretically) will fail.