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Using the unit influence line of a bridge to track changes in its condition

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Abstract

The unit influence line of a structure reflects its behaviour and changes in response to damage that may occur. An iterative algorithm is presented in this paper to obtain the shape of the instantaneous influence line of a bridge together with the relative axle loads of trucks passing overhead. One great advantage of this approach is that the need for sensor calibration with pre-weighed trucks can be avoided. The only initial information needed are the measurement data and a preliminary estimate of influence line based on engineering judgement. The concept of a so-called population unit influence line is also presented. This is an influence line that is found from a population of trucks instead of a single vehicle. An illustrative example is presented, where strain data have been collected on a reinforced concrete culvert. As well as the robustness of the proposed algorithms, the influence of temperature on the results is demonstrated. The sensitivity of the population influence line to temperature shows that it is likely to be equally sensitive to loss of stiffness in the structure.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge DARS, the Motorway Company in the Republic of Slovenia, for access to an extensive measured strain database and Cestel, the developers of the ’SiWIM’ Bridge WIM system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Barbara Heitner & Eugene J. OBrien

  2. Université de Nantes, Nantes, France

    Barbara Heitner & Franck Schoefs

  3. Phimeca Engineering, Cournon-d’Auvergne, France

    Barbara Heitner & Thierry Yalamas

  4. ZAG, Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Aleš Žnidarič

Authors
  1. Barbara Heitner
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  2. Franck Schoefs
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  3. Eugene J. OBrien
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  4. Aleš Žnidarič
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  5. Thierry Yalamas
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Correspondence to Barbara Heitner.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

This study was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie agreement No. 642453.

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Heitner, B., Schoefs, F., OBrien, E.J. et al. Using the unit influence line of a bridge to track changes in its condition. J Civil Struct Health Monit 10, 667–678 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-020-00410-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-020-00410-7

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