Structural Health Monitoring of Unique Structures: Normandy and Tancarville

摘要

The Tancarville and Normandy bridges are two signature bridges crossing the Seine River and are located in the northern region of France. They are both structures with rather unique designs. Tancarville is a suspension bridge, and Normandy is a cable-stay bridge. For various reasons, it was decided recently to install a continuous structural health monitoring system on both of these structures. Multiple types of sensors were installed and gather information on the structures, relaying data on a constant basis. The sensors will monitor the movement, vibration, effort, and the temperature of the bridges. The data collected from the system is able to provide valuable information to the engineers in charge of the maintenance. As part of the monitoring system, a data acquisition unit (DAU) was placed on-site. This DAU collects and analyzes the data from all sensors. Prior to installation, thresholds were established that if reached would trigger an alert. The DAU is then able to send alerts to predetermined recipients based on the system triggers, whether via phone, SMS, and/or e-mail. The Advitam EverSense system was selected in both cases to operate the monitoring system. The system not only provides a friendly web-based user interface, it also includes the methods and standards developed by Advitam. These methods and standards have been utilized on multiple structures of varying size and complexity around the world. Those guidelines established by the EverSense software are implemented to ensure the uptime of the system. They also ensure the ability for the sensors to provide accurate and useable information. This will discuss the design, preparation and installation of the structural health monitoring system. It will also focus on the information provided to the end-users via a dedicated website, and the potential uses of this information.