Structural health monitoring of long-span suspension bridges using wavelet packet analysis

During the service life of civil engineering structures such as long-span bridges, local damage at key positions may continually accumulate, and may finally result in their sudden failure. One core issue of global vibration-based health monitoring methods is to seek some damage indices that are sensitive to structural damage, This paper proposes an online structural health monitoring method for long-span suspension bridges using wavelet packet transform （WPT）. The WPT- based method is based on the energy variations of structural ambient vibration responses decomposed using wavelet packet analysis. The main feature of this method is that the proposed wavelet packet energy spectrum （WPES） has the ability to detect structural damage from ambient vibration tests of a long-span suspension bridge. As an example application, the WPES-based health monitoring system is used on the Runyang Suspension Bridge under daily environmental conditions. The analysis reveals that changes in environmental temperature have a long-term influence on the WPES, while the effect of traffic loadings on the measured WPES of the bridge presents instantaneous changes because of the nonstationary properties of the loadings. The condition indication indices VD reflect the influences of environmental temperature on the dynamic properties of the Runyang Suspension Bridge. The field tests demonstrate that the proposed WPES-based condition indication index VD is a good candidate index for health monitoring of long-span suspension bridges under ambient excitations.

Damage alarming of long-span suspension bridge based on GPS-RTK monitoring

Structure damage identification and alarming of long-span bridge were conducted with three-dimensional dynamic displacement data collected by GPS subsystem of health monitoring system on Runyang Suspension Bridge.First,the effects of temperature on the main girder spatial position coordinates were analyzed from the transverse,longitudinal and vertical directions of bridge,and the correlation regression models were built between temperature and the position coordinates of main girder in the longitudinal and vertical directions;then the alarming indices of coordinate residuals were conducted,and the mean-value control chart was applied to making statistical pattern identification for abnormal changes of girder dynamic coordinates;and finally,the structural damage alarming method of main girder was established.Analysis results show that temperature has remarkable correlation with position coordinates in the longitudinal and vertical directions of bridge,and has weak correlation with the transverse coordinates.The 3%abnormal change of the longitudinal coordinates and 5%abnormal change of the vertical ones caused by structural damage are respectively identified by the mean-value control chart method based on GPS dynamic monitoring data and hence the structural abnormalities state identification and damage alarming for main girder of long-span suspension bridge can be realized in multiple directions.

Advanced aerostatic analysis of long-span suspension bridges

As the span length of suspension bridges increases, the diameter of cables and thus the wind load acting on them, the nonlinear wind-structure interaction and the wind speed spatial non-uniformity all increase consequently, which may have unnegligible influence on the aerostatic behavior of long-span suspension bridges. In this work, a method of advanced aerostatic analysis is presented firstly by considering the geometric nonlinearity, the nonlinear wind-structures and wind speed spatial non-uniformity. By taking the Runyang Bridge over the Yangtze River as example, effects of the nonlinear wind-structttre interaction, wind speed spatial non-uniformity, and the cable＇s wind load on the aerostatic behavior of the bridge are investigated analytically. The results showed that these factors all have important influence on the aerostatic behavior, and should be considered in the aerostatic analysis of long and particularly super long-span suspension bridges.

Cable flexural rigidity influence on suspension bridges static properties

In order to figure out the cable flexural rigidity influence on suspension bridges,a contrast model experiment is made:a chain cable model with no flexural rigidity and a wire cable model with some flexural rigidity.And then,four finite element models of a same long-span suspension bridge with different cable element are set up to be analyzed.Both experimental and numerical simulation results show that,with the increase of the span and the decrease of sag-span ratio,the influence of the cable flexural rigidity is significant.The difference of nodes displacement reaches more than 10 cm in construction analysis,which will bring some trouble to the construction.And the difference of the maximum section edge normal stress may reach 15%,which may have an adverse impact onto the bridge.Therefore,considering the cable flexural rigidity is necessary on some analysis of suspension bridges.

Multi-type sensor placement and response reconstruction for structural health monitoring of long-span suspension bridges

This study is devoted to the experimental validation of the multi-type sensor placement and response reconstruction method for structural health monitoring of long-span suspension bridges. The method for multi-type sensor placement and response reconstruction is briefly described. A test bed, comprising of a physical model and an updated finite element （P-E） model of a long-span suspension bridge is also concisely introduced. The proposed method is then applied to the test bed; the equation of motion of the test bed subject to ground motion, the objective function for sensor location optimization, the principles for mode selection and multi-type response reconstruction are established. A numerical study using the updated FE model is performed to select the sensor types, numbers, and locations. Subsequently, with the identified sensor locations and some practical considerations, fiber Bragg grating （FBG） sensors, laser displacement transducers, and accelerometers are installed on the physical bridge model. Finally, experimental investigations are conducted to validate the proposed method. The experimental results show that the reconstructed responses using the measured responses from the limited number of multitype sensors agree well with the actual bridge responses. The proposed method is validated to be feasible and effective for the monitoring of structural behavior of longspan suspension bridges.

Temperature-induced structural static responses of a long-span steel box girder suspension bridge

Temperature is a significant load on bridges,particularly for long-span steel box girder bridges.This study investigates the temperature-induced static responses of a long-span suspension bridge under real service environmental conditions using numerical simulations and field measurements.Detailed 2 D finite element(FE)models of a typical section for the box girder,main cable,hanger,tower column,and crossbeam are constructed.The thermal boundary conditions are determined strictly according to the surrounding environments of a typical sunny day and applied to the FE models.A transient heat-transfer analysis is performed and the time-dependent temperature and its distribution on the bridge are obtained.In addition,a fine,3 D FE model of the bridge is developed for a structural analysis.The calculated temperatures are applied to the 3 D model and the temperature-induced structural responses are simulated.The simulated temperatures and the associated static responses have good agreement with the measured counterparts and support the numerical simulation method.The main cable and bridge deck make the greatest contributions to the temperature effects on the suspension bridge.The static responses of bridge caused by the design vehicle load are also calculated.The daily variation of the temperature-induced static responses is comparable with,even higher than,that of the design vehicle load.

Aerodynamic stability evolution tendency of suspension bridges with spans from 1000 to 5000 m

Aerodynamic instability owing to aerostatic and flutter-related failures is a significant concern in the wind-resistant design of long-span suspension bridges.Based on the dynamic characteristics of suspension bridges with spans ranging from 888 to 1991 m,we proposed fitted equations for increasing spans and base frequencies.Finite element models of suspension bridges with increasing span from 1000 to 5000 m were constructed.The structural parameters were optimized to follow the fitted tendencies.To analyze the aerodynamic instability,streamlined single-box section(SBS),lattice truss section(LTS),narrow slotted section(NSS),and wide slotted section(WSS)were considered.We performed three-dimensional(3-D)full-mode flutter analysis and nonlinear aerostatic instability analysis.The flutter critical wind speed continuously decreases with span growth,showing an unlimited approaching phenomenon.Regarding aerostatic instability,the instability wind speed decreases with span to approximately 3000 m,and increases when the span is in the range of 3000 to 5000 m.Minimum aerostatic instability wind speed with SBS or LTS girder would be lower than observed maximal gust wind speed,indicating the probability of aerostatic instability.This study proposes that suspension bridge with span approximately 3000 m should be focused on both aerostatic instability and flutter,and more aerodynamic configuration optimistic optimizations for flutter are essential for super long-span suspension bridges with spans longer than 3000 m.