MPC Research Reports
Report Details

Title:	Structural Health Monitoring of Highway Bridges Subjected to Overweight Trucks, Phase I - Instrumentation Development and Validation
Authors:	Richard J. Schmidt
University:	University of Wyoming
Publication Date:	Mar 2016
Report #:	MPC-16-307
Project #:	MPC-366
TRID #:	01598406
Keywords:	highway bridges, optical fibers, overweight loads, sensors, structural health monitoring

Abstract

The long-term objectives of this project were to develop and validate an instrumentation package for structural health monitoring of bridges subjected to overweight trucks and to develop plans for field deployment of the instrumentation on a pilot scale. Ultimately, the objective is to accurately correlate long-term field performance data to the behavior of the bridges predicted by analysis and rating software.

In Phase I of the project, instrumentation, packaging, installation techniques and data collection and storage for fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors were be developed in the laboratory. The essential elements of the structural health monitoring (SHM) system are in place and include (a) sensor installation and protection techniques for both concrete and steel host structures, (b) commercial and special-purpose instrumentation for interrogating the SHM network, and (c) a triggering system based in RFID technology to control the amount of data that is collected by the SHM network.

Subsequent deployment of the system on a bridge in the WYDOT inventory will require additional development of data storage and transmission capabilities, which will be particular to the location and characteristics of the targeted bridge. Researchers engaged in Phase II of this study must coordinate with bridge engineers at WYDOT to identify a spectrum of SHM applications and objectives, for which individual data analysis techniques can be developed. Subsequent design and implementation of software to execute such data analysis will be needed to relieve bridge engineers from the burdensome and tedious tasks of sifting through raw SHM data streams themselves.

How to Cite

Schmidt, Richard J. Structural Health Monitoring of Highway Bridges Subjected to Overweight Trucks, Phase I - Instrumentation Development and Validation, MPC-16-307. North Dakota State University - Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, Fargo: Mountain-Plains Consortium, 2016.