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Structural Damage Detection, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Bridge Structures

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction and Building Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 February 2023) | Viewed by 12092

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Prof. Dr. Weiwei Lin

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, Aalto University, 02150 Espoo, Finland
Interests: structural damage detection; retrofit and rehabilitation; resilience and robustness evaluation of structures; structural health monitoring and intelligent structures
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the increasing number of aged bridges, damage detection, retrofit, and rehabilitation of bridge structures have been a topic of major concern in many countries for developing a sustainable society, and their importance has been highlighted by recent bridge failures. This Special Issue will gather papers related to typical damage of bridges, damage detection techniques (either direction or indirect methods, such as drive-by-based bridge damage detection), rehabilitation, repair, and maintenance strategies for existing bridge structures, including both superstructures and substructures. Papers related to bridge health condition assessment, robustness evaluation methods, lifecycle performance etc., are also welcome to be submitted to this Special Issue.

Dr. Weiwei Lin
Guest Editor

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Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Keywords

damage detection
repair
rehabilitation
bridge structures
structural health assessment
robustness/redundancy

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 7734 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influences of Flood Conditions on Dynamic Characteristics of Novel 3D-Printed Porous Bridge Bearings

by Pasakorn Sengsri and Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Materials 2023, 16(6), 2288; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16062288 - 13 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1435

Abstract

As the key safety-critical component of a bridge support system, bridge bearings are extensively used to accommodate, balance, and transfer differential displacements and loads between the superstructure and substructure of a bridge during operations. Several studies have been conducted to obtain dynamic modal parameters of traditional bridge bearings only in perfectly dry environments. However, in extreme weather conditions (e.g., heavy rain, flash floods, etc.), water can ingress and change the bearings’ properties. In this study, novel 3D-printed porous bridge bearings (3DPPBBs) have been fabricated by Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filaments. This study is the first to determine the influences of flood conditions on their dynamic properties, which has never been done before. An idealised single degree of freedom (ISDOF) for these novel bearings is considered for the non-destructive field-testing technique of the critical bridge component. A series of experimental tests have been performed under several conditions of flooding levels. The new results unprecedentedly indicate that relatively higher dynamic damping ratios can be found with the increasing flood levels. In contrast, the natural frequencies and dynamic stiffness decrease with the same conditions. Novel insights are essential for bridge engineers to assess and monitor bridge vibrations exposed to extreme weather conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Damage Detection, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Bridge Structures)

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24 pages, 7778 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation of Frequency-Domain Dimension Reduction for A²M-Based Bridge Damage Detection Using Accelerations of Moving Vehicles

by Zhenkun Li, Yifu Lan and Weiwei Lin

Materials 2023, 16(5), 1872; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16051872 - 24 Feb 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1478

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed a rise in interest in bridge health monitoring utilizing the vibrations of passing vehicles. However, existing studies commonly rely on constant speeds or tuning vehicular parameters, making their methods challenging to be used in practical engineering applications. Additionally, recent studies on the data-driven approach usually need labeled data for damage scenarios. Still, getting these labels in engineering is difficult or even impractical because the bridge is typically in a healthy state. This paper proposes a novel, damaged-label-free, machine-learning-based, indirect bridge-health monitoring method named the assumption accuracy method (A

^{2}

M). Initially, the raw frequency responses of the vehicle are employed to train a classifier, and K-folder cross-validation accuracy scores are then used to calculate a threshold to specify the bridge’s health state. Compared to merely focusing on low-band frequency responses (0–50 Hz), utilizing full-band vehicle responses can significantly improve the accuracy, meaning that the bridge’s dynamic information exists in the higher frequency ranges and can contribute to detecting bridge damage. However, raw frequency responses are generally in a high-dimensional space, and the number of features is much greater than that of samples. To represent the frequency responses via latent representations in a low-dimension space, appropriate dimension-reduction techniques are therefore, needed. It was found that principal component analysis (PCA) and Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) are suitable for the aforementioned issue, and MFCCs are more damage-sensitive. When the bridge is in a healthy condition, the accuracy values obtained using MFCCs are primarily dispersed around 0.5, but following the occurrence of damage, they increased significantly to 0.89–1.0 in this study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Damage Detection, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Bridge Structures)

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21 pages, 23339 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction on Performance of a Single Span Footbridge with Overhangs Subjected to Mining-Induced Shocks

by Izabela Joanna Drygala, Joanna Maria Dulińska, Nicola Nisticò and Tadeusz Tatara

Materials 2022, 15(24), 9084; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15249084 - 19 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1504

Abstract

The impact of the dynamic soil-structure interaction (DSSI) on the response of a single-span footbridge to mining-induced shocks was assessed. Firstly, the eigen values, modes and damping of the footbridge were evaluated based on in-operation field tests. Then, natural frequencies were determined numerically by a model usually used in static calculations, i.e., a simple supported beam with overhangs. The numerical natural frequencies turned out to be inconsistent with the experimentally determined values. In turn, the model, assuming the overhangs’ ends translationally restrained, gave natural frequency values closer to the experimental ones. However, for the third mode, that is lateral, the frequency error (~26%) can be considered greater than usually accepted values. Hence, the three-dimensional numerical model of the footbridge was tuned by considering the DSSI between the overhangs and the ground, and implementing springs (in three directions) at the overhangs’ ends. To estimate the impact of DSSI on the dynamic performance of the footbridge, time history analyses were carried out for the model with fixed overhang ends and for the model with additional springs. Two different types of mining-induced tremors were used as excitations. Those two tremors (narrow and wide band) induced different dynamic responses in the models with and without the springs. Hence, the impact of the DSSI on the dynamic footbridge performance needs to be considered to predict the effect of mining-induced shocks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Damage Detection, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Bridge Structures)

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12 pages, 3891 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Structural Damage Identification Using the Optimal Achievable Displacement Variation

by Xi Peng, Cunkang Tian and Qiuwei Yang

Materials 2022, 15(23), 8440; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15238440 - 26 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1258

Abstract

To ensure the safe use of structures, it is essential to develop efficient damage identification techniques. In this paper, a brand-new approach to identifying structural deterioration based on static displacement is proposed. First, the relationship between the displacement variation and the damaged element is derived from the static response equations before and after damage. Subsequently, the optimal achievable displacement variation is defined to determine the damage location in the structure. A progressive elimination strategy is suggested to identify the real damaged parts and weed out the pseudo-damaged elements by measuring the distance between the measured and the best possible displacement variation. After determining the damage location, the corresponding damage extent can be calculated by a system of linear equations. The proposed approach has been tested on a beam structure and truss structure using simulated and experimental data. Compared with the existing static sensitivity method, the suggested method does not result in misjudgment and has higher identification accuracy. It has been demonstrated that the suggested approach is effective at locating and assessing the extent of structural damage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Damage Detection, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Bridge Structures)

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18 pages, 4127 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experiment Analysis on Crack Resistance in Negative Moment Zone of Steel–Concrete Composite Continuous Girder Improved by Interfacial Slip

by Wenqing Wu, Jinxi Dai, Liang Chen, Dan Liu and Xiaoyi Zhou

Materials 2022, 15(23), 8319; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15238319 - 23 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1379

Abstract

Due to the strong interface effect of continuous steel–concrete composite beams with conventional shear connectors, the efficiency of applying pre-stress in the negative moment zone is greatly reduced, which leads to a difficulty of anti-cracking design in the negative moment zone of pre-stressed steel–concrete composite box girder. In order to study the feasibility and the working mechanism of improving the crack resistance of continuous steel–concrete composite bridges by releasing the interfacial slip effect within the negative bending moment region, two groups of model tests were carried out in the paper. Two steel–concrete composite beams were used for model test, one of them using the conventional stud shear connectors, another one using the new shear connectors, named uplift-restricted and slip-permitted shear connectors. The results show that, compared with the composite beam with conventional shear studs, the composite beams with uplift-restricted and slip-permitted shear connectors have a higher pre-stress application efficiency, and the new connector could release the interface slip, which can make the tensile stress distribution in concrete slab more uniform within the negative moment zone, thus increasing the cracking load of concrete slab and reducing the subsequent crack width effectively. This study is helpful to understand the relationship between the interface slip and the anti-crack characteristics in negative moment zones, and a new anti-crack design method is proposed for the design of continuous composite girder. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Damage Detection, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Bridge Structures)

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17 pages, 3877 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study on Seismic Performance of Precast Columns Repaired with CFRP Fabrics

by Laijun Liu, Song Lei, Fangwen Wu, Weiwei Lin, Kai Peng and Xiangyan Fan

Materials 2022, 15(21), 7443; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15217443 - 24 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1637

Abstract

Earthquakes worldwide highlight the seismic vulnerability of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns. RC bridges are likely to collapse or lose service function due to damage to the bridge columns from strong earthquakes. Rapid repair of RC bridge columns is of great significance for maintaining traffic lines for emergency rescue work after earthquakes. In this study, an improved rapid repair method was developed to restore the bearing capacity of a damaged precast column after earthquake damage. A cyclic loading test was performed to simulate the seismic loading. The original column and the repaired column were both tested. The test results showed that the bearing capacity of the repaired columns was increased by 8%, and the energy dissipation capacity was 53% higher than that of the original column. The ductility decreased because the test for the repaired specimen ended in advance. The initial stiffness of the repaired columns was reduced, but the stiffness was significantly developed in the later loading stage. The rapid repair method proposed in this study exhibited an excellent effect on restoring the seismic resistance of the damaged columns. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Damage Detection, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Bridge Structures)

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20 pages, 8968 KiB

Open AccessArticle

State of Prestressing Analysis of 62-Year-Old Bridge

by Jakub Kralovanec, Frantisek Bahleda and Martin Moravcik

Materials 2022, 15(10), 3583; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15103583 - 17 May 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2010

Abstract

Ageing infrastructure leads to the need for a proper assessment and final decisions considering its state. In the case of prestressed concrete structures, knowledge of the residual state of prestressing is the crucial factor. Therefore, reliable diagnostic techniques for determining the residual value of the prestressing force are needed. This information is subsequently used in the process of the quantification of the load-carrying capacity and remaining service life of prestressed concrete structures. The presented paper introduces an evaluation of a monolithic 62-year-old prestressed concrete bridge, which was built in 1959. The assessment was carried out as a result of concerns after exposure of the anchorage area of the bridge, which was executed during the construction of the new system of anti-flood barriers in the town of Banska Bystrica in central Slovakia. Therefore, the diagnostic survey and subsequent determination of the residual prestressing force included the application of the saw-cut method, the structural response method, and the Barkhausen noise technique. Finally, the experimental program supported by numerical analysis provided information about the actual state of prestressing in the bridge. Results of performed analysis suggested that the state of prestressing of the bridge in question does not significantly differ from the expected level of prestressing after 62 years of service. Subsequently, obtained conclusions enabled the determination of the load-carrying capacity for future use in the form of a pedestrian bridge. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Damage Detection, Retrofit and Rehabilitation of Bridge Structures)

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