Some Considerations about the Incorporation of Dynamic Parameters in the Structural Health Monitoring Systems of Bridges

Abstract

Currently, there is a growing concern about the conservation and maintenance of infrastructure. Within this context, bridges deserve special attention, given their technical complexity and strategic nature. To this end, modern technology provides the opportunity to implement systems for structural health monitoring (SHM), a field in which great advances have been made in recent years. In this sense, one of the fastest-growing lines of work in Civil Engineering is the early detection of incidents because of changes in the dynamic behaviour of structures. Throughout this paper, some of the most notable considerations that the authors have been appreciating in the latest structures studied are summarized. These may be of interest for the possible incorporation of dynamic parameters in SHM systems that could be implemented in other structures in the future. With this purpose, a review of the different issues that must be studied within the dynamic analysis of a structure is carried out, such as the structural typology, the type of instrumentation, the recorded accelerations, the analysis of the natural frequencies, the study of the modal damping ratio and the set of thresholds; issues that are also accompanied by examples observed in two real monitored structures.