Damage assessment using vibration analysis on the Z24-bridge

Vibration monitoring is a useful evaluation tool in the development of a non-destructive damage-identification technique, and relies on the fact that occurrence of damage in a structural system leads to changes in its dynamic properties. It can give global information of a structure, and the location of the damage has not to be known in advance. The damage-identification technique is based on the observed shifts in eigenfrequencies and modeshapes and relate the dynamic characteristics to a damage pattern of the structure. The presented technique makes use of the calculation of modal bending moments and curvatures to derive the bending stiffness at each location. The basic assumption is that damage can be directly related to a decrease of stiffness in the structure. Damage-assessment techniques are validated on the progressively damaged prestressed concrete bridge Z24 in Switzerland, tested in the framework of the Brite Euram project SIMCES. A series of full modal surveys are carried out on the bridge before and after applying a number of damage scenarios. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.