Crack detection using integrated signals from dynamic responses of girder bridges

Abstract

An innovative approach for the identification of cracks from the dynamic responses of girder bridges was proposed. One of the key steps of the approach was to transform the dynamical responses into the equivalent static quantities by integrating the excitation and response signals over time. A sliding-window least-squares curve fitting technique was then utilized to fit a cubic curve for a short segment of the girder. The moment coefficient of the cubic curve can be used to detect the locations of multiple cracks along a girder bridge. To validate the proposed method, prismatic girder bridges with multiple cracks of various depths were analyzed. Sensitivity analysis was conducted on various effects of crack depth, moving window width, noise level, bridge discretization, and load condition. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method can accurately detect cracks in a simply-supported or continuous girder bridges, the five-point equally weighted algorithm is recommended for practical applications, the spacing of two discernable cracks is equal to the window length, and the identified results are insensitive to noise due to integration of the initial data.