Bridge Active Monitoring for Maintenance and Structural Safety

An innovative approach, defined by the term “Active Monitoring”, has been designed and implemented by the Company ARCOS Engineering for a steel suspended arch bridge, starting from its design phases, for the sake of structural control and maintenance operations. The structure has a span of 250 m with a central arch that supports the runway through steel tendons. The bridge deck consists of a central beam and cantilevered lanes. The bridge has been instrumented with load cells at suspension cables, high precision servo inclinometers, steel surface temperature, differential pressure and humidity sensors, triaxial accelerometers. Data from sensors are the input of a finite element computational engine that evaluates derived quantities. Then, the coherence between the acquired and computed quantities is verified. Warning signals are provided if this check is not met. In this manner, a real-time structural assessment is carried out in a fully automated way, highlighting potential anomalies without human interaction. Therefore, this strategy becomes a valuable support for management and maintenance planning of infrastructure assets. The paper illustrates the layout and implementation of the system as well as some of the results that have been attained.