Structural Health Monitoring Approaches for Bridges: A Review

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Civil Engineering
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................1
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................2
2.0 Structural Health Monitoring Approaches for bridges..............................................................3
3.0 Damage identification methods.................................................................................................4
3.1 Damage index method...............................................................................................................4
3.2 Change in flexibility method......................................................................................................5
4.0 Dynamic response of a moving vehicle passing over a bridge..................................................6
5.0 Indirect bridge identification methods.......................................................................................9
5.1 Bridge Natural Frequency.........................................................................................................9
5.2 Bridge Damping.......................................................................................................................10
6.2 Bridge condition assessment based on the traffic monitoring.................................................11
7.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................11
8.0 References................................................................................................................................12

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Abstract
In many engineering applications such as model updating, structural control and structural health
monitoring, the rate of vibrations is a very significant dynamic parameter for bridges. At the
same time, the occurrence of vibration of moving vehicles is an essential dynamic aspect of the
newly generated methods for determining the bridge frequencies in the situations where a vehicle
in motion is used as a test vehicle, for the purpose of detecting damage of bridges or shaking
control of bridges that are exposed to moving vehicles. Due to the high demand for maintenance
of this structures most governments have to incur an extra cost of maintenance which was not in
the initial budget. Structural Health Monitoring can be a great solution to the maintenance of the
bridges. Structural Health Monitoring is an effective data processing and effective sensory
technology which deal with the structural analysis and the modern information technology
algorithms. The key objectives of Structural Health Monitoring are to carefully monitor
structural behavior due to varying loading conditions, identify any damage, location and nature
of the damage and to assist the inspection of the structure. Therefore, Structural Health
Monitoring can perform a key role in maintaining and managing these infrastructure systems due
to various security and economic safety reasons.
Keywords: vibration control of bridges, structural health monitoring, bridge frequencies,
structural behavior.
1.0 Introduction
Bridges represent an essential structural link within a nation’s transportation system. They
usually support a nation’s economic activities by offering convenient means of transporting
people and goods over mountain valleys, water bodies and other topological obstructions (de
Dios OrtÃozar and Willumsen, L. G. (2011). For many decades the damage detection in bridges

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has been an active research topic. Due to proliferated traffic demands, environmental factors and
ageing, there is a need to monitor these bridges in order to ensure that safety and efficiency are
achieved. At the same time, the high demand for maintenance of this structures most
governments has to incur an extra cost of maintenance which was not in the initial budget.
Structural Health Monitoring can be a great solution to the maintenance of the bridges (Leung et
al. 2017). Structural Health Monitoring is an effective data processing and effective sensory
technology which deal with the structural analysis and the modern information technology
algorithms. The key objectives of Structural Health Monitoring are to carefully monitor
structural behavior due to varying loading conditions, identify any damage, location and nature
of the damage and to assist the inspection of the structure. Therefore, Structural Health
Monitoring can perform a key role in maintaining and managing these infrastructure systems due
to various security and economic safety reasons.
In many engineering applications such as model updating, structural control and structural health
monitoring, the rate of vibrations is a very significant dynamic parameter for bridges. At the
same time, the occurrence of vibration of moving vehicles is an essential dynamic aspect of the
newly generated methods for determining the bridge frequencies in the situations where a vehicle
in motion is used as a test vehicle, for the purpose of detecting damage of bridges or shaking
control of bridges that are exposed to moving vehicles (Farrar and Worden 2012).
2.0 Structural Health Monitoring Approaches for bridges.
At present, there are two main methods for Structural Health Monitoring of bridges, i.e., direct
approach and an indirect approach (Magalhães, Cunha and Caetano, 2012). Most of the present
monitoring methods are direct approaches in which sensors are fixed at specific locations of the
bridges and data is obtained from them. These on-site installed sensors happen to be expensive in