Structural health monitoring system of bridgesStructural health monitoring system of bridges

The main scope of the research is to develop an integrated monitoring system for durability assessment of bridges. The system must interface and integrate the actual practice mainly based on visual inspections and combine the response of a number of different reliable sensors, installed on the structure to monitor the progress of damage, with enhanced realistic deterioration models. The system and the sensors were developed to cover the parameters for the most important deterioration mechanisms: corrosion of reinforcement in bridges, carbonation of concrete, freeze-thaw cycles, alkali-silica reaction and mechanical damage, as well as the changes in the structures behavior and safety: static deformation, strains; crack widths and vibrations (frequencies, amplitudes, accelerations and vibration modes). The progress of the various types of damage mechanisms can be predicted by monitoring the key physical and chemical parameters of the materials (such as temperature, humidity and pH for the concrete, measured on the surface of the structure and as a profile through the concrete thickness, and/rate of corrosion of reinforcement), and key mechanical parameters (such as strains, deflections, vibrations). The use of permanent monitoring systems has several advantages once the system is installed: (i) to reduce the operating costs of inspections and maintenance by 25%, and the traffic-related costs by 30 % by reducing the number and extent of site inspections and (ii) to reduce the overall life costs of bridges by 10 % by applying the improved lifetime prediction models already from the design stage. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.