Condition Assessment of Shear Connectors in Slab-Girder Bridges via Vibration Measurements
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 13, Issue 1
Abstract
The paper presents a field study on condition assessment of the shear connectors in a full slab-girder bridge via vibration measurements. First, a model updating technique is employed to assess the condition of the whole structure, including boundary conditions, bearings, girders, slab, and shear connectors, from the accelerations on the slab measured in vibration testing. Then, a new damage index based on the difference of frequency response functions on the slab and the corresponding points on the girder is developed to evaluate the condition of shear connectors. The advantage of the new method lies in the fact that it does not need any reference data (undamaged data) for the structure. Compared with the results obtained using the model updating technique, the method is more reliable and accurate in assessing the condition of the shear connectors between the slab and girders. The effects of measurement noise on the damage identification results and the damage quantification are also studied through numerical simulation.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was performed with the support of Linkage Project LP0453783 sponsored by Australian Research Council (ARC) and Main Roads Western Australia (MRWA). Special thanks are extended to Robert Scanlon, Adam Lim, and Erica Smith. Help from Minhdu Nguyen and Darryl Goedhart of MRWA and Norhisham Bakhary and Zhongyuan Liang of UWA in conducting the field testing is also greatly appreciated.
References
ANSYS 8.1. (2004). ANSYS Inc., Southpointe, Penn.
Arizumi, Y., Hamada, S., and Kajita, T. (1981). “Elastic-plastic analysis of composite beams with incomplete interaction by finite element method.” Comput. Struct., 14(5), 453–462.
Australia Standards. (2004a). Bridge design—Part 5: Concrete, Standards Australia International Ltd., Sydney.
Australia Standards. (2004b). Bridge design—Part 6: Steel and composite construction, Standards Australia International Ltd., Sydney.
Chen, G. D., Yang, X. B., Ying, X. F., and Nanni, A. (2006). “Damage detection of concrete beams using nonlinear features of forced vibration.” Struct. Health Monit., 5(2), 125–141.
Chiewanichakorn, M., Aref, A. J., Chen, S. S., and Ahn, S. (2004). “Effective flange width definition for steel-concrete composite bridge girder.” J. Struct. Eng., 130(12), 2016–2031.
Dilena, M., and Morassi, A. (2003). “A damage analysis of steel-concrete composite beams with dynamic methods: Part II: Analytical models and damage detection.” J. Vib. Control, 9, 529–565.
Doebling, S. W., Farrar, C. R., Prime, M. B., and Shevitz, D. W. (1996). “Damage identification and health monitoring of structural and mechanical systems from changes in their vibration characteristics: A literature review.” Los Alamos National Laboratory Rep. LA-13070-MS.
Eom, J., and Nowak, A. S. (2001). “Live load distribution for steel-girder bridges.” J. Bridge Eng., 6(6), 489–497.
Ewins, D. J. (2000). Modal testing: Theory, practice and application, Research Studies Press Ltd., Hertfordshire, U.K.
Farrar, C. R., Doebling, S. W., Cornwell, P. J., and Straser, E. G. (1997). “Variability of modal parameters measured on the Alamosa Canyon Bridge.” Proc. of the 15th Int. Modal Analysis Conf., Orlando, Fla, 257–263.
Hao, H., and Xia, Y. (2002). “Vibration-based damage detection of structures by genetic algorithm.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 16(3), 222–229.
MATLAB. (2005). Optimization toolbox user’s guide, version 3, Mathworks, Inc., Natick, Mass.
Morassi, A., and Dilena, M. (2003). “A damage analysis of steel-concrete composite beams with dynamic methods: Part I: Experimental results.” J. Vib. Control, 9, 507–527.
Oehlers, D. J. (1995). “Design and assessment of shear connectors in composite bridge beams.” J. Struct. Eng., 121(2), 214–224.
Oehlers, D. J., and Coughlan, C. G. (1986). “The shear stiffness of stud shear connections in composite beams.” J. Constr. Steel Res., 6(4), 273–284.
Przemieniecki, J. S. (1968). Theory of matrix structural analysis, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Sohn, H., Farrar, C. R., Hemez, F. M., Shunk, D. D., Stinemates, S. W., Nadler, B. R., and Czarnecki, J. J. (2003). “A review of structural health monitoring literature from 1996–2001.” Los Alamos National Laboratory Rep. LA-13976-MS.
Stubbs, N., and Kim, J. T. (1996). “Damage localization in structures without baseline modal parameters.” AIAA J., 34(8), 1644–1649.
Swanson, J. A., and Leon, R. T. (2000). “Bolted steel connections: Tests on T-stub components.” J. Struct. Eng., 126(1), 50–56.
Swanson, J. A., and Leon, R. T. (2001). “Stiffness modeling of bolted T-stub connection components.” J. Struct. Eng., 127(5), 498–505.
Toksoy, T., and Aktan, A. E. (1994). “Bridge-condition assessment by modal flexibility.” Exp. Mech., 34, 271–278.
Xia, Y., Hao, H., and Deeks, A. (2006a). “Vibration-based damage detection of shear connectors in Nickol River Bridge and Balla Balla River Bridge, Part III: Results of the second testing.” Rep. No. ST-06-01, School of Civil & Resource Engineering, Univ. Western Australia, Crawley.
Xia, Y., Hao, H., and Deeks, A. (2007). “Dynamic assessment of shear connectors in slab-girder bridges.” Eng. Struct., 29(7), 1475–1486.
Xia, Y., Hao, H., Zanardo, G., and Deeks, A. (2006b). “Long-term vibration monitoring of an RC slab: Temperature and humidity effect.” Eng. Struct., 28(3), 441–452.
Zanardo, G., Hao, H., Xia, Y., and Deeks, A. (2006). “Condition assessment through modal analysis of a run-on RC slab bridge before and after strengthening.” J. Bridge Eng., 11(5), 590–601.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 20, 2006
Accepted: Feb 27, 2007
Published online: Jan 1, 2008
Published in print: Jan 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.