Health Monitoring Method for Bridges Using Ambient Vibration Data due to Traffic Loads

교통하중에 의한 상시미진동을 이용한 교량의 건전도 감시기법

This paper presents intermediate results of an on-going research for identification of the modal and the stiffness parameters of a bridge based on the ambient vibration data caused by the traffic loadings. The main algorithms consist of the random decrement method incorporating band-pass filters for estimation of the free vibration signals the cross spectral density method for identification of the modal parameters and the neural networks technique for estimation of the element-level stiffness changes. An experimental study is carried out on a scaled bridge model with a composite section subjected to various moving vehicle loadings. Vertical accelerations are measured at several locations on the girder. The estimated frequencies and mode shapes are found to be well-compared with those obtained from the impact tests. The estimated stiffness changes using the neural networks are found to be very good for the case with the simulated data. However the accuracy is found to be not quite satisfactory for the case with the experimental data particularly for the small value of the stiffness changes.