Drive-By Bridge Damage Identification Using Successive Variational Modal Decomposition and Vehicle Acceleration...

Area of Science:

• Structural Health Monitoring
• Civil Engineering
• Vibration Analysis

Background:

• Bridge integrity is crucial for transportation safety.
• Existing damage identification methods often require direct access or specialized equipment.
• Non-destructive evaluation techniques are highly sought after for infrastructure assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel drive-by bridge damage identification method.
• To develop a damage indicator based on vehicle acceleration response.
• To assess the method's effectiveness on different bridge types and under various conditions.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a two-axle test vehicle to collect acceleration data on undamaged and damaged bridges.
• Processing acceleration responses with successive variational modal decomposition (SVMD) to extract intrinsic modal functions (IMFs).
• Constructing a damage indicator using the difference of IMFs for damage localization.

Main Results:

• The proposed damage index successfully identified single and multiple bridge damages.
• Damage location was accurately identified despite pavement roughness.
• The method demonstrated applicability to both simply supported and continuous bridges.
• Vehicle local vibration and measurement noise were found to interfere with identification accuracy.

Conclusions:

• The developed drive-by method offers a promising approach for bridge damage identification.
• The damage index is robust to pavement conditions and applicable to diverse bridge structures.
• Further research is needed to mitigate the impact of noise and vehicle vibrations for enhanced reliability.