Continuous Monitoring of the Øresund Bridge: Data Acquisition and Operational Modal Analysis

Abstract

The Øresund Bridge opened in July 2000. It is the most striking part of the fixed link across the Øresund connecting Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmø (Sweden), which further includes a tunnel and an artificial island. The bridge is equipped with a PC‐based continuous monitoring system, capable of measuring both static and dynamic quantities such as temperatures, wind characteristics, air humidity, strains, and accelerations. The challenges for the design of the monitoring system were the long distances between the monitoring points and the variety of sensors. This article describes the bridge and the monitoring system components. Some typical measurement data are presented. Finally, the modal parameters of the bridge are extracted from the deck, cable, and tower vibrations. This shows that the system not only gives information about sudden events that exceed a certain threshold, but can also find use as a health monitoring system by tracking the evolution of the modal parameters.