Robustness Assessment of a Steel Truss Bridge

This study focuses on the robustness assessment of a steel truss bridge. In the first part, a brief overview of several robustness indexes found in literature is provided, together with the principal approaches on the topics of structural robustness, collapse resistance and progressive collapse. In the second part, the extensively studied I-35W Minneapolis steel truss bridge is used as a case study for the application of a consequence-based robustness assessment. In particular, focus is given on the influence that the loss of primary elements has on the structural load bearing capacity.