Vibration monitoring of long bridges and their expansion joints and seismic devices

Abstract

This paper presents a number of recently installed Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems: a) on a 2km double suspension bridge; b) on a long railway viaduct that has experienced cracking; and c) on a steel arch bridge in a seismically active area. Damage detection techniques have been applied based on high-frequency measurements of vibrations, pressure and strain, enabling a proper understanding of the structures' behaviour to be gained. The diverse range of applications presented, designed in collaboration with structure owners and design engineers, includes damage detection on expansion joints of suspension bridges, crack analysis and correlation with accelerations of high-speed trains, and high-frequency performance monitoring of seismic devices. These case studies, based on both static and dynamic approaches, demonstrate the usefulness and ease of use of such systems, and the enormous gains in efficiency they offer.