Numerical simulation of barge impact on a continuous girder bridge and bridge damage detection

Vessel collisions on bridge piers have been frequently reported. As many bridges are vital in transportation networks and serve as lifelines, bridge damage might leads to catastrophic consequences to life and economy. Therefore it is of great importance to protect bridge structures, especially bridg...

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Main Authors: Sha, Y., Hao, Hong
Format: Journal Article
Published: Multi-Science Publishing Co. Ltd. 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23435
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author Sha, Y.
Hao, Hong
author_facet Sha, Y.
Hao, Hong
author_sort Sha, Y.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Vessel collisions on bridge piers have been frequently reported. As many bridges are vital in transportation networks and serve as lifelines, bridge damage might leads to catastrophic consequences to life and economy. Therefore it is of great importance to protect bridge structures, especially bridge piers, against vessel impacts. Many researches have been conducted to predict vessel impact loads on bridge piers, and to design bridge piers or additional protective structures to resist such impact loads. Studies on assessing the bridge conditions after a vessel impact are, however, very limited. Current practice basically uses visual inspections, which not only requires very experienced engineers to perform the inspection in order to obtain creditable assessment, but also is often very difficult to inspect the underwater pier conditions. Therefore it is necessary to develop methods to give efficient, quantitative and reliable assessment of bridge conditions under ambient conditions after a vessel impact. This study explores the feasibility of using vibration measurements to quickly detect bridge conditions after a vessel impact.The study consists of three parts. First, a detailed numerical model of an example bridge structure is developed to calculate the vibrations under ambient hydrodynamic force. Then the model is used to simulate vessel impact on bridge pier and predict the pier damage. The vibration response analysis of the damaged bridge model is performed again in the third step to simulate vibration responses of the damaged bridge under ambient conditions. Using the vibration data obtained before and after vessel impact, the bridge vibration parameters such as vibration frequencies and mode shapes are extracted by using the frequency domain decomposition method. The bridge condition will then be identified through the changes in bridge vibration parameters and compared with the damage observed in the impact simulation. It is found that this method is capable of estimating bridge damage condition after barge impact accident.
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format Journal Article
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:48:09Z
publishDate 2013
publisher Multi-Science Publishing Co. Ltd.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-234352017-09-13T13:56:21Z Numerical simulation of barge impact on a continuous girder bridge and bridge damage detection Sha, Y. Hao, Hong Pier damage Bridge condition Vessel collision Vessel collisions on bridge piers have been frequently reported. As many bridges are vital in transportation networks and serve as lifelines, bridge damage might leads to catastrophic consequences to life and economy. Therefore it is of great importance to protect bridge structures, especially bridge piers, against vessel impacts. Many researches have been conducted to predict vessel impact loads on bridge piers, and to design bridge piers or additional protective structures to resist such impact loads. Studies on assessing the bridge conditions after a vessel impact are, however, very limited. Current practice basically uses visual inspections, which not only requires very experienced engineers to perform the inspection in order to obtain creditable assessment, but also is often very difficult to inspect the underwater pier conditions. Therefore it is necessary to develop methods to give efficient, quantitative and reliable assessment of bridge conditions under ambient conditions after a vessel impact. This study explores the feasibility of using vibration measurements to quickly detect bridge conditions after a vessel impact.The study consists of three parts. First, a detailed numerical model of an example bridge structure is developed to calculate the vibrations under ambient hydrodynamic force. Then the model is used to simulate vessel impact on bridge pier and predict the pier damage. The vibration response analysis of the damaged bridge model is performed again in the third step to simulate vibration responses of the damaged bridge under ambient conditions. Using the vibration data obtained before and after vessel impact, the bridge vibration parameters such as vibration frequencies and mode shapes are extracted by using the frequency domain decomposition method. The bridge condition will then be identified through the changes in bridge vibration parameters and compared with the damage observed in the impact simulation. It is found that this method is capable of estimating bridge damage condition after barge impact accident. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23435 10.1260/2041-4196.4.1.79 Multi-Science Publishing Co. Ltd. fulltext
spellingShingle Pier damage
Bridge condition
Vessel collision
Sha, Y.
Hao, Hong
Numerical simulation of barge impact on a continuous girder bridge and bridge damage detection
title Numerical simulation of barge impact on a continuous girder bridge and bridge damage detection
title_full Numerical simulation of barge impact on a continuous girder bridge and bridge damage detection
title_fullStr Numerical simulation of barge impact on a continuous girder bridge and bridge damage detection
title_full_unstemmed Numerical simulation of barge impact on a continuous girder bridge and bridge damage detection
title_short Numerical simulation of barge impact on a continuous girder bridge and bridge damage detection
title_sort numerical simulation of barge impact on a continuous girder bridge and bridge damage detection
topic Pier damage
Bridge condition
Vessel collision
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23435