Concrete bridge damage detection using parallel simulation

Bridge health assessment is an interdisciplinary area of high socio-economical value. Bridge damage detection technology is one of the most developed technologies today. This paper introduces a new simulation-based damage detection method for reinforced concrete bridge structures using parallel processing. The proposed method takes advantage of vehicle axle loads and high accuracy bridge response from an advanced bridge monitoring system, executes simultaneously variant structural analyses with hypothetical damage assumption to reduce processing duration and improve productivity of damage detection, and utilises the mathematical model of Residual Sum of Squares in the comparison of simulation results and monitoring data to determine the best-fit models. In the case study, seven scenarios are simulated to explore and verify the features of the proposed method. A discussion of perspectives for further implementations completes the paper.