Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Publication
    Vibration energy harvesting based monitoring of an operational bridge undergoing forced vibration and train passage
    The application of energy harvesting technology for monitoring civil infrastructure is a bourgeoning topic of interest. The ability of kinetic energy harvesters to scavenge ambient vibration energy can be useful for large civil infrastructure under operational conditions, particularly for bridge structures. The experimental integration of such harvesters with full scale structures and the subsequent use of the harvested energy directly for the purposes of structural health monitoring shows promise. This paper presents the first experimental deployment of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting devices for monitoring a full-scale bridge undergoing forced dynamic vibrations under operational conditions using energy harvesting signatures against time. The calibration of the harvesters is presented, along with details of the host bridge structure and the dynamic assessment procedures. The measured responses of the harvesters from the tests are presented and the use the harvesters for the purposes of structural health monitoring (SHM) is investigated using empirical mode decomposition analysis, following a bespoke data cleaning approach. Finally, the use of sequential Karhunen Loeve transforms to detect train passages during the dynamic assessment is presented. This study is expected to further develop interest in energy-harvesting based monitoring of large infrastructure for both research and commercial purposes.
    Scopus© Citations 106  570
  • Publication
    Estimation of nonlinearities from pseudodynamic and dynamic responses of bridge structures using the Delay Vector Variance method
    Analysis of the variability in the responses of large structural systems and quantification of their linearity or nonlinearity as a potential non-invasive means of structural system assessment from output-only condition remains a challenging problem. In this study, the Delay Vector Variance (DVV) method is used for full scale testing of both pseudo-dynamic and dynamic responses of two bridges, in order to study the degree of nonlinearity of their measured response signals. The DVV detects the presence of determinism and nonlinearity in a time series and is based upon the examination of local predictability of a signal. The pseudo-dynamic data is obtained from a concrete bridge during repair while the dynamic data is obtained from a steel railway bridge traversed by a train. We show that DVV is promising as a marker in establishing the degree to which a change in the signal nonlinearity reflects the change in the real behaviour of a structure. It is also useful in establishing the sensitivity of instruments or sensors deployed to monitor such changes.
    Scopus© Citations 9  414
  • Publication
    The Virtual Axle concept for detection of localised damage using Bridge Weigh-in-Motion data
    This paper proposes a new level I damage identification method for short span statically indeterminate bridges using the information provided by a Bridge Weigh-in-Motion system. Bridge Weigh-In-Motion systems measure the bridge deformation due to the crossing of traffic to estimate traffic attributes, namely axle weights and distances between axles for each vehicle. It is theoretically shown that it is convenient to introduce a fictitious weightless axle, which has been termed 'Virtual Axle', in the Bridge Weigh-in-Motion calculations to derive a damage indicator. The latter can be used both as a new robust output-only model-free level I structural health monitoring technique and as a new self-calibration method for Bridge Weigh-In-Motion systems. The response of a fixed-fixed beam traversed by a 2-axle vehicle travelling over an irregular profile is used to validate the proposed method. By means of Monte Carlo simulation the influence of the key parameters such as the degree and location of damage, noise levels, span lengths and profile irregularities on the accuracy of the method are investigated. The results show that the 'Virtual Axle' method is able to detect small local damages in statically indeterminate structures.
    Scopus© Citations 23  438
  • Publication
    Calculating an Influence Line from Direct Measurements
    (Institution of Civil Engineers, 2006-03) ; ;
    The response of a bridge to a pre-weighed truck can be measured on site. This paper describes a mathematical method for converting the measured response of a load effect into an influence line for that effect. One influence ordinate is calculated for each scan of the data acquisition system. The vector of ordinates is found by solving a large set of simultaneous equations expressed in matrix form. The general form of the matrices is described, and the particular matrices for a three-axle truck are given. The technique is demonstrated using measured strain on two bridges using pre-weighed trucks with different numbers of axles.
      1555
  • Publication
    Maximum total load effects in vehicle-bridge dynamic interaction problems for simply supported structures
    (European Association for Structural Dynamics, 2014-07-02) ; ;
    This paper quantifies the underestimation of bending moment that results from exclusively considering the mid-span section of bridges when calculating vehicle-bridge dynamic interaction. A numerical model of a simply supported Euler-Bernoulli beam, traversed by a 1-DOF vehicle, is used to evaluate the differences. The simplicity of the model is justified by the additional insight that the results provide on the complex vehicle-bridge interaction problem. The results are presented using three dimensionless parameters that uniquely define the solution, taking into account the coupled system (vehicle and beam) frequencies and masses as well as the velocity of the passing vehicle. The results show that the overall maximum load effect occurs in the vicinity of the mid-span section and can be of significantly higher magnitude when compared to the maximum at mid-span.
      183