Finite element and experimental bases of a practical bridge management and maintenance system

This paper describes the FE and experimental bases of a practical bridge management and maintenance (BMM) system. The proposed BMM system provides periodic monitoring against aging or urgent integrity and damage assessments of bridge structures at a minimal cost. The FEA is based on the hybrid technique, enhanced with computerized analytical FE integrating-generating symbolic algorithm modules for fast and accurate FE predictions. The resulting static and dynamic FEA scheme is PC portable and accommodates computer automated p-method of convergence analysis facility. The in situ experimental scheme makes use of traffic loading in static and dynamic test measurements for easy and low cost diagnostic structural assessments. The theoretical and practical aspects of the proposed BMM system are explained and demonstrated for a typical highway bridge. The paper gives the FEA versus the experimental results for the dynamic modal analysis of the sampled bridge to show that the present BMM system can be used for accurate diagnostic assessment and damage detection reliably and cost effectively. (C) 1999 Civil-Comp Ltd and Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.