Health Assessment of a Post-Tensioned Concrete Bridge

Identification of damage location based on modal measurements is an important problem in structural health monitoring. The damage index method, which attempts to evaluate the changes in the modal strain energy distribution, has been found to be effective under certain circumstances. In this paper a new damage index method based upon strain and kinetic energy is proposed and compared with the former. The objective is to evaluate the feasibility of the damage index method to localize the damage and estimate the severity using FEM simulations of a bridge. Finally this method was used to predict the damaged location in an actual structure, using the results of a modal survey from a large concrete bridge.