Safety Monitor Symmetry Concerning Beam Bridge Damage Utilizing the Instantaneous Amplitude Square Method

Abstract

It is critical for the safety monitoring of highway bridges that beam bridge damage can be identified from the dynamic response of passing vehicles. Numerical simulations of passing vehicles were conducted utilizing the vehicle–bridge coupling vibration theory and the indirect measurement method. Fast Fourier transform was performed on the time history response of vehicle acceleration, and the driving frequency component response and its instantaneous amplitude square value (IAS value) were obtained by band-pass filtering and Hilbert transform processing. The identified IAS value detected the damage location of the bridge. The identification method of IAS value is used to analyze the applicability of a simply supported beam bridge, a continuous beam bridge, and an irregular skew beam bridge. The effects of vehicle speed, vehicle damping, bridge damping, and a social vehicle on damage identification are discussed. The results show that the effect of damage location is better when the vehicle speed is less than 4 m/s. In the presence of social vehicles, the excitation on the bridge increases, and the damage location can still be accurately determined by the IAS method. Vehicle damping and bridge damping have little effect on the results of damage identification. In structural health monitoring for bridges, this paper can provide a theoretical reference for the application of IAS motion sensing to identify the damage location indirectly.