Rapid-to-deploy wireless monitoring systems for static and dynamic load testing of bridges: validation on the grove street bridge

Abstract

Bridge management officials have expressed a keen interest in the use of low-cost and easy-to-install wireless sensors to record bridge responses during short-term load testing. To illustrate the suitability of wireless sensors for short-term monitoring of highway bridges, a wireless monitoring system is installed upon the Grove Street Bridge to monitor structural responses during static and dynamic load testing. Specifically, load testing of the Grove Street Bridge is conducted after its construction to validate the behavior of a novel jointless bridge deck constructed from a high-performance fiber reinforced cementitious composite (HPFRCC) material. A heterogeneous array of sensing transducers are installed in the bridge including metal foil strain gages, accelerometers and linear variable differential transducers (LVDTs). First, the acceleration response of the bridge is monitored by the wireless system during routine traffic loading. Modal parameters (modal frequencies and mode shapes) are calculated by the wireless sensors so that an analytical model of the bridge constructed in a standard commercial finite element package can be updated off-line. Next, the bridge is closed to traffic and trucks of known weight are parked on the bridge to induce static deformations. The installation strategy of the wireless monitoring system during static load testing is optimized to monitor the strain and rotation response of the HPFRCC deck. The measured static response of the deck is compared to that predicted by the updated analytical model.