Analyzing Prerepair and Postrepair Vibration Data from the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge after Ship Collision
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 3
Abstract
The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, an 854-m (2,804-ft) double-deck truss bridge in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was struck by a 144-m (473-ft) cargo ship on April 1, 2013. After days of visual inspection and assessment, it was found that the main damage, significant bending of a vertical and a diagonal truss member, required replacement of the impacted members. According to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, the repair cost $2.5 million. Before and after repairs, the authors collected vibration data on the bridge. This was a rare, valuable data set of a major structure at its damaged (prerepair) and healthy (postrepair) states. In this paper, the authors detail the data analyses and results and compare data collected before and after repairs at the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge. A finite-element model (FEM) of the damaged bridge span was created to compare the field data. By studying the frequency responses of the vibration data and the FEM, the authors were able to identify and explain noticeable changes between the bridge’s healthy and damaged states.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge partial support by the National Science Foundation under Grants 12-28074, 13-42020, and 14-30260. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors also are grateful to Prof. Ramesh Govindan and his research team, especially Drs. Shuai Hao and Nilesh Mishra, for providing the wireless accelerometers used in the field testing.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 3 • March 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 23, 2015
Accepted: Sep 14, 2015
Published online: Dec 17, 2015
Published in print: Mar 1, 2016
Discussion open until: May 17, 2016
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