Abstract
The diagnosis of damage in a bridge superstructure using quasi-static strain influence lines (ILs) is promising. However, it is challenging to accurately localize the damage in a bridge superstructure due to limited numbers of strain IL measurement points and inconsistencies between the loading conditions before and after damage. To address the above issues, the Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) technique is first applied to bridge damage localization using quasi-static strain ILs, and the number of strain IL measurement points is substantially increased. Additionally, a damage localization index based on quasi-static strain ILs that is independent of differences in the loading conditions before and after damage is proposed to localize damage in the superstructure of a beam bridge. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through both numerical analysis and measured data from a quasi-static test of a model bridge.
Highlights
The strain of structures is generally recognized as a highly sensitive feature in the damage of civil structures [1]
The above equation demonstrates that the proposed damage feature is independent of the variation in the loading conditions before and after damage; this feature is more sensitive to the damage of the bridge superstructure than to the differences between the quasi-static strain influence lines (ILs) before and after damage occurs
The following conclusions this study, a method is proposed to localize the superstructure of beam bridges by are drawn: are drawn: using measured quasi-static strain ILs based on the Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) technique
Summary
The strain of structures is generally recognized as a highly sensitive feature in the damage of civil structures [1]. Strain is known to reflect the local deformation of structures, and traditional strain gauges cannot detect damage effectively unless they are located directly within the damaged region To overcome this issue, the Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) technique [27,28] is combined with quasi-static strain ILs to supply a sufficient number of measured strain IL points. If one single optical fiber is placed along the longitudinal direction of the superstructure of the beam bridge under quasi-static loading conditions, the combination of this sensing optical fiber and the BOTDA technique can supply a sufficient number of quasi-static ILs at different measured points.
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