Detection of vertical bending and torsional movements of a bridge using a coherent radar

Interferometric radar has been recently proposed as a measurement instrument for static and dynamic testing of large structures, such as bridges, towers, dams. At the state of the art, the equipment has been demonstrated able to follow the displacements of a bridge provided that vertical bending movements are predominant with respect to torsional ones. In this paper, the authors propose and experimentally test an advancement of the interferometric technique able to overcome the previous assumption and to retrieve the effective displacement of each single section of a bridge in case of both vertical bending and torsional movements. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.