Dynamic Assessment of the Structural Behavior of a Pedestrian Bridge Aiming to Characterize and Evaluate Its Comfort Level

Abstract

The assessment of infrastructure integrity is considered paramount to verify its structural health and to build its resilience. In this study, a monitoring strategy, consisting of a pre-developed microcontroller-based data acquisition system (DAQ) hardware and a software program for post processing built on LabVIEW platform, was conducted to assess the structural behavior of an arch-and-tie pedestrian bridge located in Haidari, Greece, following its construction phase. This endeavor aimed to delineate its systemic state and to verify the fulfillment of comfort criteria stated by EN1990, HIVOSS and SETRA guidelines. To this end, four trademark Bridge Diagnostic Inc. (BDI) triaxial accelerometers were meticulously deployed along the bridge expanse to scrutinize the structure’s response toward a spectrum of induced perturbations. The established framework effectively compiled the acquired acceleration time domain then employed a Butterworth bandpass filter to derive the bridge eigenfrequencies, eigenmodes, and damping ratios. The resultant findings conclusively indicate that the bridge response towards pedestrian crossing conforms to the established specifications and thus does not necessitate the installation of dampers. The bridge maintains comfortable structural integrity for pedestrian traversal up to an upper frequency limit of 3.67 Hz, substantiating its ability to absorb the dissipated energy generated by pedestrian movement.