Safety–Function–Environment Evaluation System for Large-Span Cable-Supported Bridges: Theory and Case Studies

Abstract

Compared with common bridges, large-span cable-supported bridges contain more components, are located in a more complex environment, and play a more important role in traffic system sustainability. Throughout the service life, it is more necessary to evaluate their safety, functionality, and environmental status. In this study, a comprehensive evaluation system is proposed to fill the gap using advanced sensor-guided structural health monitoring data and probability-based digital twins. Safety evaluation is the basis of the system and can be divided into overall and component levels. The former includes an over-limit analysis of main structural responses and degradation identification of dynamic characteristics. The abnormal areas discovered in this phase and the hot spots prompted by prior information during the design process will be checked in the latter. The functional assessment of this system is mainly based on checklist-type inspection and is often carried out together with appearance inspection and non-main structural component detection. Environmental assessment includes the monitoring and analysis of wind fields, temperature, humidity, foundation scour, and traffic flow and is the source of external information in the aforementioned two modules. The temperature and humidity of the example bridges are basically uniformly distributed along the spatial dimension, fluctuating over a period of one day.