Validation of the harmonized partial factor method for design and assessment of concrete structures as proposed for fib model code 2020

When considering the assessment of concrete structures, a consistent approach to assess the safety level of existing structures in an objective and well-founded way is currently still lacking in practice. As such, fib TG3.1 has developed proposals for the quantification of adjusted partial factors for the assessment of existing structures and has harmonized these proposals with partial factors for design. This resulted in a set of equations and tabulated values for the determination of partial factors for the design of new structures as well as the assessment of existing structures, currently under consideration for the fib Model Code 2020 (MC2020). In this contribution, the equations and tabulated values for partial factors as proposed for MC2020 are briefly summarized and applied in a full-probabilistic first order reliability method (FORM) analysis in order to assess the accuracy of the proposal with respect to reaching chosen target reliability levels. The proposals appear to lead to a consistent and adequate framework for both design and assessment, that enables targeted safety levels to be achieved.