Structural health monitoring and buffeting-induced fatigue damage assessment of long suspension bridges

As modern suspension bridges become longer and longer, buffeting-induced fatigue damage problem for the bridges located in strong wind regions may have to be taken into consideration. Furthermore, there is a trend to install wind and structural health monitoring systems (WASHMS) to long suspension bridges for performance assessment. A systematic framework for assessing long-term buffeting-induced fatigue damage to long suspension bridges is thus presented in this paper by integration of the Joint probability density distribution of wind speed and direction, the structural health monitoring-orientated finite element model of the bridge, the numerical procedure for buffeting-induced stress analysis, and the continuum damage mechanics (CDM)-based fatigue damage assessment method. The framework is then applied to the Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong. It is found that the proposed framework is feasible and practical.