Abstract

In this paper, we explore an indirect measurement approach for bridge structural health monitoring (SHM) that collects sensed information from the dynamic responses of many vehicles travelling over a bridge and then makes extensive use of advanced signal processing techniques to determine information about the state of the bridge. We refer to this approach as vehicle-data driven and indirect. We discuss some of the advantages of this indirect approach over direct monitoring of structures. We simplified the vehicle-bridge interaction and used a numerical oscillator-beam interaction model to generate some preliminary interaction response data with which to begin to assess the validity of this approach. A Multiresolution image classifier was used to analyze the preliminary data. We present the basic idea behind this approach and preliminary results that demonstrate its viability. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.