Effect of deterioration overtime on the power spectral density of the bridge vibration responses under real traffic

Abstract

Working in an environment with many influencing factors can lead to the deterioration of construction. For bridges, the harshness and unpredictability of the environment can come from temperature, air humidity, wind, soil, and vehicle loads. Over time, these factors cause the quality of the bridge to degrade. Because there are too many factors acting simultaneously with varying degrees of influence, this paper only focuses on the parameter that represents the degradation over time, regardless of which factor the degradation is due to. The proposed parameter has a one-way variation with time, and its change is a sensitive indicator to operation process of the bridge. This parameter is calculated using measurement data of the bridge’s vibration over time and in response to actual traffic loads. This demonstrates the viability of this idea in the experiment.