Health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges with relative displacement sensors

This paper investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of using a recently developed relative displacement sensor for the structural health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges. The developed relative displacement sensor is an innovative design offering some advantages and unique...

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Main Authors: Li, Jun, Hao, Hong
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2015
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE140101741
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/31816
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author Li, Jun
Hao, Hong
author_facet Li, Jun
Hao, Hong
author_sort Li, Jun
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of using a recently developed relative displacement sensor for the structural health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges. The developed relative displacement sensor is an innovative design offering some advantages and unique features, and is a much easier and economical method for structural health monitoring due to the simplicity of its direct measurement of relative displacement without the requirement for a stable reference point. To investigate the performance of applying the developed relative displacement sensors for structural joint condition monitoring, a steel truss bridge model is fabricated in the laboratory and installed with the relative displacement sensors to detect the health conditions of joint connections. The dynamic relative displacement measurements are analyzed with a time-frequency analysis method, i.e. continuous wavelet transform, which is a well-practiced signal processing technique to identify the structural condition change, namely the loosen bolt damage in the joint connection of steel truss bridges under ambient vibrations. The sensitivity range of the developed sensor is also investigated to see how sensitive the sensor is to identify the local bolt damage. Relative displacement measurements of the steel truss bridge models under free vibration tests from both undamaged and damaged states are also analyzed, and a damage index based on the change in the percentages of a specific wavelet packet component to the total wavelet packet energy between the undamaged and damaged states is used to detect the existence of the loosen bolt damage in steel truss bridges. Experimental studies demonstrate that the developed relative displacement sensor has a sensitive performance to identify and assess the joint conditions in steel truss bridges.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2015
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-318162022-09-06T04:48:45Z Health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges with relative displacement sensors Li, Jun Hao, Hong This paper investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of using a recently developed relative displacement sensor for the structural health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges. The developed relative displacement sensor is an innovative design offering some advantages and unique features, and is a much easier and economical method for structural health monitoring due to the simplicity of its direct measurement of relative displacement without the requirement for a stable reference point. To investigate the performance of applying the developed relative displacement sensors for structural joint condition monitoring, a steel truss bridge model is fabricated in the laboratory and installed with the relative displacement sensors to detect the health conditions of joint connections. The dynamic relative displacement measurements are analyzed with a time-frequency analysis method, i.e. continuous wavelet transform, which is a well-practiced signal processing technique to identify the structural condition change, namely the loosen bolt damage in the joint connection of steel truss bridges under ambient vibrations. The sensitivity range of the developed sensor is also investigated to see how sensitive the sensor is to identify the local bolt damage. Relative displacement measurements of the steel truss bridge models under free vibration tests from both undamaged and damaged states are also analyzed, and a damage index based on the change in the percentages of a specific wavelet packet component to the total wavelet packet energy between the undamaged and damaged states is used to detect the existence of the loosen bolt damage in steel truss bridges. Experimental studies demonstrate that the developed relative displacement sensor has a sensitive performance to identify and assess the joint conditions in steel truss bridges. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/31816 10.1016/j.measurement.2015.12.009 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE140101741 fulltext
spellingShingle Li, Jun
Hao, Hong
Health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges with relative displacement sensors
title Health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges with relative displacement sensors
title_full Health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges with relative displacement sensors
title_fullStr Health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges with relative displacement sensors
title_full_unstemmed Health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges with relative displacement sensors
title_short Health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges with relative displacement sensors
title_sort health monitoring of joint conditions in steel truss bridges with relative displacement sensors
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE140101741
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/31816