A Vehicle-based Health Monitoring System for Short and Medium Span Bridges and Damage Detection Sensitivity

Abstract

In this paper, one practical solution to the problem for condition assessment of short and medium span(10-30m) bridges is discussed. It uses vehicle-based measurements with public buses as part of a public transit system (called bus monitoring system). The details of theoretical background and the system are described with detailed flow of the bridge monitoring process that uses an in-service fixed-route bus. Advantages and principle of the bridge structure anomaly detection (condition assessment) method using the under-spring vibration of an in-service bus (public bus) are described in detail. This paper also describes the procedure for calculating "characteristic deflection," which is an indicator used to evaluate the degree of deterioration (bridge condition) of short and medium span bridges. Finally, the sensitivity of “characteristic deflection”, which is a bridge (health) condition indicator used by the bus monitoring system, in damage detection is verified by 3D FEM analysis.