The paper addresses the reliability change of a road bridge pile foundation due to the unpredictable increase of settlements in time. The analysis is based on the Rędziński Bridge in Wrocław, Poland, its design assumptions, and monitoring results. The bridge foundation rests on a multi-layered subsoil assumed random. The Finite Element model of the subgrade is generated in ZSoil® software. To simplify the probabilistic approach,...

This paper delivers a probabilistic attempt to prove that the selection of a random three-dimensional finite element (FE) model of a subsoil affects the computed settlements. Parametricanalysis of a random soil block is conducted, assuming a variable subsoil Young’s modulus inparticular finite elements. The modulus is represented by a random field or different-sized setsof random variables; in both cases, the same truncated...

Load tests of bridges are widely performed in a large number of countries. Deterministic comparison of measurement results to the theoretical, FEM (finite element method)-based outcomes with possible further calibration is mostly applied. Sometimes, the data collected in the tests are also used to calibrate the reliability factors of bridge structures or their components. This work proposes to complement the stage of the load test...