Numerical and Experimental Assessment of the Highway Arch Viaduct

Abstract

Full–scale dynamic testing of bridge structures can provide valuable information on the service behavior and performance of structures. With the growing interest in the structural condition of highway bridges, dynamic testing can be used as a tool for assessing the integrity of bridges. From the measured dynamic response, induced by instructed passing trucks, modal parameters (natural frequencies, mode shapes and modal damping values) and system parameters (stiffness, mass and damping matrices) are obtained. These identified parameters can then be used to characterize and monitor the service of the bridge structure in the future. Analytical models of the structure can also be validated using these parameters [1,2]. The paper presents a procedure for estimating the traffic load bearing capacity of the steel arch highway viaduct Bridge Structure 205 (DC1–9, 755 m) constructed on Highway D1 in Nord Slovakia (Fig. 1) over the natural hollow basin via dynamic tests of the viaduct structures.