Discussion on a Vehicle–Bridge Interaction System Identification in a Field Test

Abstract

For infrastructures to be sustainable, it is essential to improve maintenance and management efficiency. Vibration-based monitoring methods are being investigated to improve the efficiency of infrastructure maintenance and management. In this paper, signals from acceleration sensors attached to vehicles traveling on bridges are processed. Methods have been proposed to individually estimate the modal parameters of bridges and road unevenness from vehicle vibrations. This study proposes a method to simultaneously estimate the mechanical parameters of the vehicle, bridge, and road unevenness with only a few constraints. Numerical validation examined the effect of introducing the Kalman filter on the accuracy of estimating the mechanical parameters of vehicles and bridges. In field tests, vehicle vibration, bridge vibration, and road unevenness were measured and verified, respectively. The road surface irregularities estimated by the proposed method were compared with the measured values, which were somewhat smaller than the measured values. Future studies are needed to improve the efficiency of vehicle vibration preprocessing and optimization methods and to establish a methodology for evaluating accuracy.

Numerical Verification of the Drive-By Monitoring Method for Identifying Vehicle and Bridge Mechanical Parameters

“…The PRE process still contains algorithms susceptible to noise and needs improvement. This noise vulnerability of the PRE method is confirmed in a field experiment [32], while Yang's method is verified in a field experiment. Keenahan et al [27] and Xue et al [29] proposed similar methods to estimate road unevenness.…”

“…However, the obtained accuracy is enough for evaluating road roughness, while a higher accuracy is required for estimating bridge parameters. According to the field test results [32], the PRE accuracy is decreased by the noise. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the noise characteristics of VBI systems to apply the PRE method practically.…”

“…In addition, these practical challenges have not yet been overcome. According to the previous study performing the field test [32] of the PRE method, many of the causes come from the low robustness due to observation noises. The numerical integration process is susceptible to noise, and rather than the mechanical parameters themselves, the results can be significantly influenced by unknown factors such as the angle of sensor installation, electromagnetic waves, speed fluctuation, engine vibration, and wind loads.…”

“…This scheme extension can be realized by adding a bridge simulation process. The extended method is called the PRE (numerical simulation-based vehicle and bridge parameter and road roughness estimation in VBI system) method [30][31][32] in this study. The uniqueness of the PRE method is that it includes the identification process of the bridge system.…”

“…Furthermore, the estimation sensitivity to a slight decrease in stiffness should be investigated. Another current study [32] provides the application results of the PRE method to the data obtained from the field experiment and concludes that there are still many difficulties in implementing this scheme using actual data.…”