Structural health monitoring for bridge maintenance

Abstract

The transportation infrastructure plays a major role in the economy of the USA. Providing a reliable mobility and serviceability of this infrastructure is extremely important. Bridges are an integral part of this infrastructure and periodic inspection and maintenance plays a major role in keeping these operational. Appropriate maintenance avoids major bridge rehabilitation and replacement, and extends the structural life cost-effectively. Effective maintenance programs involve several aspects such as scheduling a maintenance activity, the activity itself, and the scope of such an activity. The main challenge faced by a bridge manager is to institute maintenance activities with minimum expenditure. The focus of this paper is to illustrate the possible role of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in bridge maintenance and management aspects. This paper illustrates a cost – benefit (value) approach for use of SHM in maintenance applications to quantify the decision-making process involved with maintenance activities. Several examples are presented to show the effectiveness of using SHM in maintenance activities, with a detailed illustration.