Status of structural health monitoring of long‐span bridges in the United States

TLDR

Structural health monitoring of long‑span bridges in the United States is increasingly important because many of the 1,100 bridges with spans over 100 m are aging, fall outside AASHTO standards, and their failure would have significant societal impacts. This paper reviews key SHM technologies—sensor development, data processing, damage‑detection algorithms, and information analysis—to stimulate discussion of SHM as an emerging research area across aerospace, civil, and mechanical fields. The review draws on examples from aerospace, civil, and mechanical communities, describing sensor technologies, data‑processing methods, and damage‑detection algorithms applied to the 1,100 major long‑span bridges in the U.S., many of which are over 50 years old. More than 800 of these bridges are classified as fracture‑critical, indicating that SHM techniques could be vital for maintaining and preserving this aging infrastructure.

Abstract

Abstract This paper gives an overview of ongoing research and development in the field of structural health monitoring technologies in the US, with application to long‐span bridges. Specifically, this paper attempts to review various key structural health monitoring technologies, including sensor development, data processing, damage detection algorithms, data analysis and information processing. Several examples are cited from the aerospace, civil and mechanical communities. Monitoring of constructed systems are of considerable interest since the consequences of failure can have a significant effect on the society at large. For instance, consider the 1100 major long‐span bridges in the USA (those with spans of 100 m or longer), many are over 50 years old, and several notable ones are over 100 years old. These bridges fall outside the Standard Specifications issued by AASHTO (1998), and there is little generic experience related to maintaining their performance, especially after they age and/or following any damage. More than 800 of the long‐span bridges in the National Bridge Inventory are classified as fracture‐critical. It follows that structural health monitoring techniques may prove to be useful for maintaining and preserving this population of aging civil infrastructure. It is hoped that the following will stimulate additional discussion regarding the importance of structural health monitoring as an emerging research area for a variety of aerospace, civil and mechanical applications.