Objetivo The overall achievement of the project is the improvement of the decision making related to the requalification of "older" structures in the offshore, bridges and power plants areas. Therefore, a methodology was developed, in which structural and/or mechanical integrity is the governing criterion, however other more qualitative criteria are also considered simultaneously. Furthermore, for the automation of the process, a set of engineering (software) tools handling several related problems has been developed. The most innovative achievement of the project has been the development of multi-criteria decision analysis techniques which take into account various types of uncertainties involved in the evaluation of the decision criteria and constraints. Starting from the three separate well established decision techniques: Multi-Criteria Decision Methods (MCDM) namely a) the deterministic criteria, b) the fuzzy decision analysis with a single criterion involving "fuzzy" uncertainty, and c) the bayesian decision analysis with a single criterion involving "stochastic" uncertainty, have been developed through combining and merging them with either joint utility functions or the AHP method. These developments have provided a comprehensive methodology for problems which may be encountered in practice. Guidelines have been provided to assist the users in the selection of a particular method for the problem being considered. The project has been very successful in achieving its principal objective of providing a rational basis for decision-making for requalification of existing structures. A decision-theoretic framework has been proposed for requalification and innovative methods have been developed for decision analysis within this framework. The applicability and benefits of the developed methods have been demonstrated through a number of realistic examples. Finally, the developed methods have been implemented into an intelligent software system. The exploitation potential of the results is large (spin-off products commercialised already at the end of the project, exploitation agreement achieved) and the European collaboration pattern established in the project involving seven countries and several industrial areas stable. The results of the BE5935 project and of the RESTRUCT software offer an excellent basis for development of these dedicated software systems in single DSS for each area of these area of application.The proposed research tackles the problem of decision-making for the requalification of existing ("old", "geriatric") structures and structural components in various fields of industry, taking bridges, power plants and offshore structures as examples. In particular, it tackles question like "what to do with the old plant/component" where the corresponding answers (e.g. "replace, repair, use-as-is...") heavily depend on the random nature of many physical phenomena involved, as well as on the uncertain nature of various engineering and non-engineering parameters that govern the use of these structures. Although a lot of relevant research has been done already, its application to practical structural engineering decisions still and by far does not meet the actual needs. Lack of such decision aid tools is particularly apparent in management of large industrial plants where a wrong or unoptimized decision can cause extreme consequences.The main goal of this project is to make a major step towards the solution of these problems mainly by:- developing (customizing) a rational engineering methodology and - developing the corresponding set of engineering tools for decision making related to the requalification of target structures,taking into account not only the structural and/or mechanical integrity as the governing criterion, but also other, often very qualitative criteria (like the environmental ones or, e.g. "image of the company"). Within the project, the "engineering" decision making methodologies will thus be developed and then tested in the three target fields of application. The improved decision making is expected to bring important technical, environmental and economical benefits (a typical repair on an offshore platforms amounts to several dozen million ECUs and typical repair/replace decisions related to yearly revisions of piping systems in power plants involve usually several million ECUs. Ámbito científico natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwaresoftware applicationssystem softwaresocial sciencessociologyindustrial relationsautomationengineering and technologycivil engineeringstructural engineering Programa(s) FP3-BRITE/EURAM 2 - Specific programme (EEC) of research and technological development in the field of industrial and materials technologies, 1990-1994 Tema(s) 2.1.1 - Innovative design tools and techniques Convocatoria de propuestas Data not available Régimen de financiación CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinador Staatliche Materialprüfungsanstalt Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección Pfaffenwaldring 32 70569 Stuttgart Alemania Ver en el mapa Enlaces Sitio web Opens in new window Coste total Sin datos Participantes (10) Ordenar alfabéticamente Ordenar por aportación de la UE Ampliar todo Contraer todo Agip SpA Italia Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección 20120 Milano Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos COWI CONSULT Dinamarca Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección PARALELVEJ 15 2800 LYNGBY Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos D'Appolonia SpA Italia Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección Via Siena 20 16146 Genova Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos DET NORSKE VERITAS RESEARCH A/S Noruega Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección PO BOX 300 1322 HOEVIK Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos GROSSRAFTWERK MANNHEIM AG Alemania Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección 6800 MANNHEIM Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos IMATRA POWER LTD. Finlandia Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección PO BOX 112 01601 VANTAA Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos LABORELEC SV Bélgica Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección RODESTRAAT 125 1630 LINKEBEEK Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos MANAGEMENT INTELLIGENTER TECH. GMBH Alemania Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección PROMENADE 9 5100 AACHEN Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos Snamprogetti SpA Italia Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección Viale d Gasperi 16 20097 San Donato Milanese Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos W S Atkins Consultants Ltd Reino Unido Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección Woodcote Grove Ashley Road KT18 5BW Epsom Ver en el mapa Enlaces Sitio web Opens in new window Coste total Sin datos