Research and application of indirect monitoring methods for transport infrastructures to monitor and evaluate structural health

Abstract

Currently, bridge constructions in Vietnam, as well as in the world, are regularly monitored and evaluated to ensure safety in the exploitation process and to prevent damage. The traditional method of monitoring by geodetic tools through monitoring cycles often brings results with significant errors, thus not really representing the performance of the structure and potential damages on it. Recently, to overcome the factors observed by geodetic methods, sensors are directly located on the construction to monitor the change of parameters, such as stress, deformation and vibrations. From that monitoring it is possible to assess the mining safety level of the structure through the data collected continuously from the sensors. However, the funding needs for each monitoring system and for each specific project may be very large, not to mention the need to spend a large amount of resources to maintain the monitoring system for many projects, including high prices from experts and exclusive distributors. Instead of using sensors and machines on constructions, the research and application of sensors placed on a vehicle that often passes on a traffic structure may present several benefits. In this case, the structures are indirectly monitored through equipment placed on vehicles moving along the structure. In this work, focus is given on researching and application of indirect monitoring methods by installing sensors on vehicles to identify frequency and evaluate bridge structures’ performance.