Reference-Free Displacements for Condition Assessment of Timber Railroad Bridges
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 2
Abstract
Current railroad bridge inspection and rating practices include observing bridge movement under live loads to help assess bridge conditions. Recent research has shown that transverse displacements of timber trestle bridges can capture critical changes in bridge serviceability (the ability to safely carry out railroad operations) as a function of railroad loading, speed, and direction. Measuring bridge movement under trains in the field is difficult and expensive because a fixed reference point is not normally available, thus creating the need to erect independent scaffolding to create good reference points near a timber bridge. This research demonstrates the potential of using reference-free accelerations collected with wireless smart sensors to estimate railroad bridge transverse displacements under live train loads. Focus is placed on timber trestle bridges, which comprise approximately 24% of the total inventory length of railroad bridges in the United States. The results show that wireless smart sensors can estimate transverse displacements of timber railroad trestles and could become an effective tool for campaign monitoring of railroad bridges (with applications toward helping overall bridge assessment).
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this research from the following sources is gratefully acknowledged: the American Association of Railroads (AAR) Technology Scanning Program; the O. H. Ammann Research Fellowship of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), ASCE; the Talentia Fellowship (Junta de Andalucía, Spain); and the Illinois Graduate College Dissertation Travel Committee at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The authors thank the CN Railway’s bridge-testing team for their support in the monitoring campaign of the U2.60 Bluford Bridge: Hoat Le, Dave Roberts, Vamsi Tolikonda, and Zhenyu Zhao. The assistance and suggestions from Mark Paull from CN Railways and Mike Dooley from ESCA Consultants, Inc., are appreciated. Finally, Dan Painter (ROW Consultants) provided protection during the bridge monitoring.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 2 • February 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 18, 2014
Accepted: Apr 22, 2015
Published online: Sep 21, 2015
Published in print: Feb 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Feb 21, 2016
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