Integration of SHM into Bridge Management Systems: Case Study–Z24 Bridge

摘要

Bridge Management System (BMS) is a decision-support tool developed to assistthe authorities in determining how and when to make decisions regardingmaintenance, repair, and rehabilitation of structures in a systematic way. However,despite the advances in BMS modeling, the condition assessment activities still relyheavily on visual inspections, which inherently produce widely variable results. Onthe other hand, the goal of Structural Health Monitoring is to improve the safety andreliability of aerospace, civil, and mechanical infrastructure by detecting damagebefore it reaches a critical state. To achieve this goal, technology is being developed toreplace qualitative visual inspection and time-based maintenance procedures withmore quantifiable and automated damage assessment processes. It is the authors'belief that for the activities related to bridge safety and maintenance should be basedon visual inspections along with results from long-term monitoring. Over the lastdecade, the authors have realized that research in both fields has been conductedseparately. Therefore, in order to develop a more reliable bridge safety andmaintenance process, this paper summarizes the foundation of an approach tointegrate both fields. The applicability of this approach is then demonstrated on datafrom the Z24 Bridge in Switzerland.