Abstract
Bridges are under various loads and environmental impacts that cause them to lose their structural integrity. A significant number of bridges in US are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, requiring immediate attention. Nondestructive load testing is an effective approach to measure the structural response of a bridge under various loading conditions and to determine its structural integrity. This paper presents a load-test study that evaluated the response of a prefabricated bridge with full-depth precast deck panels in Michigan. This load-test program integrates optical surveying systems, a sensor network embedded in bridge decks, and surface deflection analysis. Its major contribution lies in the exploration of an embedded sensor network that was installed initially for long-term bridge monitoring in bridge load testing. Among a number of lessons learned, it is concluded that embedded sensor network has a great potential of providing an efficient and accurate approach for obtaining real-time equivalent static stresses under varying loading scenarios.
Highlights
Bridges are a critical component of a nation’s ground transportation infrastructure system that allows the movement of people and goods from one place to another
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) statistics show that about 20% of the National Highway System (NHS) bridges and 27% of non-NHS bridges in US are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete [1], resulting in a total of about 152,000 bridges requiring immediate attention in the form of repair or replacement
This paper presents the results of a load testing study to evaluate the response of the Parkview Bridge under varying load configurations via nondestructive load testing and the utilization of an embedded sensor network
Summary
Bridges are a critical component of a nation’s ground transportation infrastructure system that allows the movement of people and goods from one place to another. Meaningful information regarding the bridge reliability can be extracted [4] This is true with the growing adoption of the prefabrication technology in bridge construction. Due to its relatively short history in bridge construction, long-term performance data of prefabricated bridges are rarely existent, and sensor technology is many times utilized to monitor their long-term performance. This scenario of embedding sensors in bridge structure is the case with the Parkview Bridge in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which was constructed in 2006 as a totally. The major contribution of this study is its demonstration of how an embedded sensor network might be utilized to acquire real-time equivalent static stresses under various loading scenarios
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