New advances on structural health monitoring for Runyang Yangtse River Bridge

During the service of civil engineering structures such as large-scale frames, long-span bridges and high-rise buildings, local damage of their key positions may continually accumulate, and finally results in sudden failure of structures. In recent years, long-term health monitoring and condition assessment for long-span bridges have emerged as a viable alternative to the traditional methods of visual inspection and nondestructive instrumental evaluation. Developing a long-term monitoring system for a long-span bridge-one that is really able to provide information for evaluating structural integrity, durability and reliability throughout the bridge life cycle and ensuring optimal maintenance planning and safe bridge operation-poses technological challenges at different levels. This paper explores recent technology advances in the field of structural health monitoring and condition assessment for the Runyang Yangtse River Bridge. Some key issues including the baseline finite element modeling, structural damage alarming, structural damage location identification and serviceability reliability assessment are discussed in detail with regard to the realization strategies and methods together with the typical analysis results.