Abstract

The ISIS Canada Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program has focused on two main themes to improve civil engineering infrastructure, namely innovative construction technologies, and structural health monitoring (SHM). The former began with the construction of the first field application of the innovative steel-free concrete bridge deck slab technology at the Salmon River bridge, Nova Scotia, in 1995. Although this bridge has continued to function safely under heavy traffic loads, it has developed characteristic longitudinal cracking of the concrete between adjacent girders due to fatigue. This paper describes the recent research to develop an SHM model for monitoring the impact and stability of this cracking. Theoretical and experimental models were used to examine the change in response as cracking develops. A global load distribution matrix was proposed, and the variation in load distribution values with cracking was used to develop a cracking index that can be employed in monitoring the field structure.Key words: structural health monitoring, bridges, concrete, deck slabs, cracking, load distribution.

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