Dynamic Monitoring of a roadway bridge supported by a plain concrete arch

摘要

The bridge under study is an arch bridge built in 1940, whose main structural element is a concreternarch without reinforcement that spans 80 m. Since it is one of the bridges with larger spanrnconstructed in Portugal during the Second World War period, involving a plain concrete arch, thisrnbridge is an important Portuguese landmark. Due to the construction of a new hydroelectric powerrnplant in the vicinity of the bridge, the bridge was equipped with a vibration based Structural HealthrnMonitoring system, in order to continuously observe the impact of the construction activities on thernstructural integrity of this historical bridge.rnThis paper presents the main characteristics of the structure and of its monitoring project, includingrna description of the monitoring hardware and software that is complemented with the analysis of thernresults associated with more than two years of continuous tracking of the bridge modal parameters.