Damage Progression of Highway Bridges and Operational Vibration-Waveforms
The dynamic response of civil structures has long been utilized in damage detection. Techniques such as vibration-based damage identification, usually focused on experimentally determining modal parameters, have shown promising applications in detecting damage on bridges. A major drawback of most current damage-detection techniques, including the current video-based approach using drones, is their inability to explain the cause or the condition under which certain types of damage occur at different locations on the bridge. In this work, a nondestructive vibration-based approach, operational response and waveform analysis (ORWA), will be used to determine a cause and possible prevention solutions to the local damage occurring on bridges. In ORWA, damage on a bridge is correlated to the structural motions that are generated by the operational crossing traffic. By identifying the type and speed of vehicles that can put the bridge in deformation modes that can cause detrimenttal damage when they cross the bridge, new mitigation, maintenance, and (potentially) traffic rules can be developed to reduce these effects. In a previous work supported by the Iowa Department of Transportation, the initial idea of ORWA was presented and tested on a single-span highway bridge. A modified form of ORWA was developed and used finite element analysis to correlate traffic vibration waveforms with the modal response of the bridge. In this work, ORWA will be enhanced to include a camera-based system that would be integrated and synched with the vibration waveform measurements. The newly developed ORWA will be tested and validated on two bridges in Iowa.
- Record URL:
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $168,349.00
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Contract Numbers:
69A3552348307
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Mid-America Transportation Center
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
2200 Vine Street, PO Box 830851
Lincoln, NE United States 68583-0851 -
Project Managers:
Stearns, Amy
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Performing Organizations:
University of Iowa, Iowa City
National Advanced Driving Simulator, 2401 Oakdale Blvd
Iowa City, IA United States 52242-5003 -
Principal Investigators:
Rahmatalla, Salam
- Start Date: 20240601
- Expected Completion Date: 20260630
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Highway bridges; Structural deterioration and defects; Structural health monitoring; Vibration control; Vibration tests
- Geographic Terms: Iowa
- Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01971747
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Mid-America Transportation Center
- Contract Numbers: 69A3552348307
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Nov 19 2025 2:42PM