Bridge Structural Health Monitoring Systems

Bridge are complex structures which are made of multiple elements and components that are stressed and interact with one another when exposed to external phenomena. Structural Health Monitoring allows rapid assessment of a bridge’s state of health and such approach is becoming recognized as a proper mean to increase the safety and optimize operational and maintenance activities of bridges. The data resulting from the monitoring program are used to improve the operation, the maintenance, the repair and the replacement of the structure based on reliable and objective data. Detection of ongoing damages can be used to discriminate deviations from the design performance. The malfunctioning of bridges can often have serious consequences. The most severe are failures involving human victims. Even when there is no loss of life, populations suffer if the structure is partially or completely out of service. The economic impact of structural deficiency is reflected by costs of reconstruction as well as losses in the other branches of the economy. On the other hand, repairing or replacing a bridge that is still in acceptable and safe condition, is also an inefficient use of financial resources. Learning how a bridge performs in real conditions will help to design better structures for the future. This can lead to cheaper, safer and more durable structures with increased reliability, performance and safety.

Structural Heath Monitoring using SMARTEC solutions represents a good way to improve knowledge and assessment on the structural performance and integrity.

Why is it important to monitor a bridge?
- to ensure bridge safety
- for a better planning of the maintenance
- to extend the lifetime of deficient bridges
- to improve the knowledge of the structure

Benefits of SMARTEC's Integrated Bridge Health Monitoring Solutions

1 - Integrated Solutions SMARTEC provides Integrated Structural Health Monitoring Solutions for bridges, based on advanced fiber optic technologies and conventional sensors. We also integrate local corrosion sensors and other third party transducers for additional information. All sensing technologies are seamlessly integrated into a single database and user interface.

2 - SHMLive Through the SHMLive service, SMARTEC offers a comprehensive solution for bridge monitoring. This includes the design of the system, its delivery and installation, maintenance and operation, web access to the data and data analysis by experienced engineering partners, all for a fixed monthly fee.

3 - Ensure security, assessing real conditions of the bridge Structural Health Monitoring aims to provide more reliable data on the real conditions of the structure, observe its evolution and detect the appearance of new degradations. Furthermore, provide a comparison between design and real (monitored) behavior confirms or denies designed performances. A SMARTEC structural monitoring system installed on a bridge is able to guarantee security for the structure itself and for the users as well.

4 - Extend the lifetime of ageing bridges Many structures are in much better conditions than you expect or observe by visual inspection alone. In these cases, monitoring will allow you to increase the safety margins without any intervention on the structure. Take advantage of better material properties, over design and synergetic effects to extend the lifetime or load-bearing capacity of your structures. If repairs are really needed, the monitoring data helps designing an optimal repair strategy.

5 - Quality Assurance A monitoring system provides information on the quality of the material used in the construction as well as on the structural design calculus during and after the construction.

6 - Improve knowledge on complex bridges Improve and increase knowledge on structural behavior of complex or novel bridges on the long-terms and when new materials, new construction technologies and new structural systems are used. For bridges built of unusual material, monitoring is an effective way to comprehend the real behavior and to refine behavioral theories. Monitoring helps creation, knowledge’s improvement and accurate recalibration of numerical models.

7 - Assessing bridge safety immediately following a major event Understand and assess possible damages and failures caused by extraordinary events such as earthquakes, impact, strong wind, storms or explosion. This ability allows a bridge manager or consultant to make a preliminary assessment of whether the safety of the bridge has been seriously compromised.

8 - SMARTEC: your dependable partner for instrumentation project management SMARTEC will support you in all phases of the project, from the system design, to installation, commissioning and training. Through our experience and commitment, we guarantee the satisfaction of your monitoring needs. The Roctest group has been instrumenting critical structures, including dams and nuclear power plants, for more than 60 years. We will be here to support your project for at least the next 60. Our worldwide network of system integrators provides a competent local support for your project. All our systems come with a 10 year warranty on the availability of spare parts.

Solutions

The following packages are the most widely used for Bridge monitoring. However each projects has specific requirements and needs that can be addressed by a tailored system. SMARTEC has developed a 7-step methodology to design and implement a optimal SHM system for your bridge.

Selected References

Turcot Bridge - MuST (Canada, 2008 - 09)
I35-W Bridge (USA, 2008)
Gota Bridge Monitoring (Sweden, 2005)
Manhattan Bridge Monitoring (United States, 2005 - 07)
Curved concrete bridge in Lugano (Switzerland, 2004 - 05)
New Mexico I10 Bridge (United States of America, 2004)
Cable stayed bridge in Venice (Italy, 2003 - 05)
Rio Puerco  (USA, 2000)
Colle Isarco  (Italy, 1999)

More...

© SMARTEC SA 2009 - CREDITS