Using measured rotation on a beam to detect changes in its structural condition

Abstract

A recent survey of Europe's highway infrastructure has concluded that almost half of Europe's bridges are nearing the end of their design live. Work in the wider Structural Health Monitoring sector is aiming to develop reliable and cost-effective methods for verifying condition, remaining service life and safety of ageing structures. Most bridge condition assessment methods are based on deflection, acceleration or strain measurements. This paper looks at the possibility of using rotation measurements as a main parameter to identify damage. This study looks at numerical analyses of a moving point load on a one-dimensional bridge model to provide the theoretical basis of the proposed damage detection method. It is shown that when local damage occurs, even when it is remote from a sensor location, it results in an increase in the magnitude of rotation measurements. This study looks at how best to exploit this fact for damage detection. A number of damage scenarios, sensor locations, and load arrangements are investigated in this study and their influence on the ability of the algorithm to detect damage are reported.

Monitoring the Condition of Narrow Bridges Using Data from Rotation-Based and Strain-Based Bridge Weigh-in-Motion Systems

“…The conclusion is that the installed inclinometers, measuring rotation, appeared to provide the clearest damage detection for the structure, with the accelerometers failing to detect some of the damage scenarios altogether. Hester et al (2019) and McGeown et al (2021) use rotation as a damage-sensitive parameter by comparing the rotational influence line of a healthy and damaged bridge, successfully supporting these findings with experimental validation in the laboratory (Huseynov et al 2019). Makki Alamdari et al (2019 also use rotation influence lines as a damage indicator, illustrated by simulations on a 3-dimensional finite element model calibrated against a bridge in the field.…”

Research on measurement and control method of swivel bridge across railway

“…Through satellite projection, GPS can accurately locate the ground information, thus transmitting the information to the information desk, processing the information in time, and then transmitting it to the specific terminal server to make accurate information positioning. For the principle of accurate positioning of projection information, it is to achieve accurate positioning of information through the information measurement of landmark buildings by two satellites, and to complete accurate management of information according to the accuracy differences in different tests [3][4][5]. After the completion of the construction of the construction control network across the railway bridge, this chapter introduces GPS technology to implements the control of construction measurement accuracy through the calibration of the control network.…”

A Novel Wireless Low-Cost Inclinometer Made from Combining the Measurements of Multiple MEMS Gyroscopes and Accelerometers

“…Therefore, it can be concluded that the accurate measuring range of LARA is up to four degrees. This range is accurate enough for the target application of bridge monitoring, as in these kinds of structures increments of rotation higher than 0.5 degrees are not expected [ 24 , 84 ].…”