This paper presents a wireless sensor network for assessing the structural health of urban highway bridges. Sensor data were collected on two pre-stressed box beam bridges (PSBB) with eight wireless sensor nodes. The wireless sensor was able to collect one hundred Accelerometer data samples per second without losing any wireless sensor data. Application software was developed to transform the sample data into frequency domain. Sensor data from all eight wireless sensor nodes have shown the similar peak frequencies with multiple trial runs on the same bridge. The peak frequency component was unique to each highway bridge. The signal to noise ratio in frequency domain is greater than seven to one. By comparing the actual wireless sensor data with the predictions from a finite element bridge model, a hypothesis of evaluating the structural health of the bridge was presented.Index Terms -Wireless mesh networks, sensor networks, frequency domain, structural health.

This study investigated the potential use of tire derived rubber aggregates, particularly powdered rubber, and recycled steel-wire fibers in concrete subjected to impact loading. The fibers are approximately 0.4 mm in average diameter and 25 mm in length on average. There are two main portions to this study. The first phase of this study involved small-scale batching to investigate the fresh and hardened properties of concrete mixtures with powdered rubber up to 50% replacement of sand volume and recycled steel fibers up to 0.25% by mixture volume. Additional mixtures containing powdered rubber, crumb rubber, and tire chips were evaluated for their mechanical performance. Based on fresh concrete properties, compressive strength, modulus of rigidity, and impact resilience, mixtures were selected for a second investigative phase. In this phase, static and impact testing were performed on two sets of scaled beams. One beam set was produced with concrete containing 40% powdered rubber as a sand replacement and another beam set with a combination mixture incorporating rubber products of varying sizes (10% powdered rubber, 10% crumb rubber, and 10% tire chip) and 0.25% recycled steel fiber. Flexural performance improved initially with the inclusion of powdered rubber but decreased with increasing concentrations. Mixtures including recycled steel fibers at 0.25% outperformed industrial steel fiber mixtures in both flexural strength and impact resistance. For both the static and impact beams with the recycled powdered rubber and steel fibers in the combination demonstrated improved load distribution and load-carrying capacity, acting as a sufficient replacement for industrial steel fiber reinforcement.

We propose dynamic response based condition assessment of prestressed box beam (PSBB) bridges that will be more realistic and cost-efficient. The hypothesis includes that the dynamic response is a sensitive indicator of the physical integrity and condition of a structure. We deployed two wireless sensor networks for collecting the real-time dynamic response of a 25-year old PSBB bridge under trucks with variable loads and speeds. The dynamic response of the bridge at its newest condition was collected from FE simulations of its 3-D FE models mimicking field conditions. The FE model was validated using experimental and theoretical methods. We used Fast Fourier Transform and peak-picking method to determine peak amplitudes and their corresponding fundamental frequencies at its newest and current condition. The analyses interestingly indicate a 37% reduction in its fundamental frequency over a 25-year service life. This reduction has been correlated to its current visual inspection to develop application software for quick and efficient condition assessment of PSBB bridges. The research outcome will provide an efficient and cost-effective solution for bridge inspection and maintenance.

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