Experience with Structural Damage Identification of an Experimental Bridge Model

Abstract

The paper is devoted to structural health monitoring using a non-destructive method based on the method of direct stiffness determination combined with the model updating method. The primary aim of the paper is to determine the change in bending and torsional stiffnesses. In the first part of the work it was necessary to prepare a simple experimental scale model of the bridge which was made from two materials – wood and plaster boards. The same bridge model was created in the finite element commercial codes RFEM5 - Dlubal (a more detailed 3D analysis) and ANSYS (a 2D analysis). The last numerical model consists of beam elements with lumped mass elements. The modal analysis was made and these results were used as a comparative base for measurements. In either case data for the original and the damaged models were acquired. Analysis of the measurement data led to the identification of vertical and torsional mode shapes. Last part of the paper is devoted to identification of the damage by application of the direct stiffness calculation method.