Implementation of a BIM-Based Collaboration System for Structural Damage Condition Assessment in an Asymmetric Butterfly Arch Bridge

The developments in building information modeling (BIM) technology provide a new approach for remote real-time visualized bridge health monitoring and structural damage detection, but so far, there are scarcely any application cases of a BIM-based SHM system for butterfly arch bridges around the world. This paper reviewed the recent progress on the butterfly arch bridge and its requirements for the integration between SHM and BIM. Based on an actual project in southwest China, work on the spatial mechanical properties, the analysis of monitoring requirements, and the design of functional modules of SHM are elaborately conducted. Subsequently, the lightweight BIM is established and integrated into the web client-side of the SHM system with the skeleton-template method, CATIA platform, and sensor data. With the implementation of user-defined virtual sensor parameter linkage, the design of the specific databases is accomplished in the SQL server environment. Based on one actual incident that saw an overweight/oversize vehicle (with the weight of 80 t, 2015) pass over the arch bridge, the fuzzy relation synthesis and data cleaning method were improved to compare the standard deviation with the threshold value of the correlation degree, and a method is adopted to evaluate the structural operation behavior of the bridge and the service condition of the BIM-based SHM system after the ultra-limit accident. The study results evince the validity and efficiency of the BIM-based SHM system, which could lay a foundation for the visualized assessment and early warning system of long-span bridges.