Vibration-based damage detection for bridges

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Bridges form a critical component of the transportation network upon which the Canadian economy depends. It is therefore imperative that the condition or "health" of bridges be maintained at an acceptable level to ensure public safety and sustain adequate levels of service. As the bridge population ages and individual bridge structures deteriorate, it becomes increasingly important to have an accurate assessment of their condition so that decisions can be made regarding the timing and extent of needed repairs. Conceptually, this can be achieved through various forms of monitoring. In general, the earlier damage can be detected and repaired, the less it will cost to maintain in the long-term. Unfortunately, current monitoring methods are often not able to provide sufficient information to allow the detection of damage at an early enough stage in its development. Visual inspections, which form the basis for most bridge monitoring strategies, have been found to be remarkably unreliable. Other technology based methods are often costly and time consuming to implement and are not necessarily capable of identifying damage to the inaccessible parts of a bridge. This proposal focuses on an alternative approach to monitoring that relies on measuring changes to the way a bridge vibrates as an indicator of the presence of damage; this approach does not suffer from the same limitations.