Instrumentation of the US Grant Bridge for Monitoring of Fabrication, Erection, In-Service Behavior, and to Support Management, Maintenance, and Inspection (SJN: 14805)
Researchers: Arthur Helmicki, Victor Hunt, James Swanson – University of Cincinnati
The behavior of cable-stayed bridges has not fully been understood yet, especially dealing with the three dimensional vibrations which lead to fatigue and the issue with inspection dealing with the epoxy coated, grout filled stays. An effective bridge monitoring system is needed for bridge management and maintenance purposes.
The objective of this research is to identify, install, and implement an appropriate instrumentation and field-testing program to support management of the US Grant Bridge (SCI-23-0.00). This program will augment the traditional visual inspection program to provide objective, quantitative data for use by ODOT in assessing the status of the structure; capture key static and dynamic aspects of the behavior of the bridge during both construction and in-service use; including dead-loads, controlled truck-loads, traffic, wind, thermal, and other load responses; create finite element and other models and calibrate them with the measured data, in order to assess the condition and capacity of the structure; develop field-ready monitoring strategies aimed at supporting inspection, maintenance and management activities and reducing life-cycle costs; develop a database of all field test data obtained on the US Grant Bridge including baseline and a regular regimen of truck-load tests, ambient vibration tests, and long-term environmental monitoring; and provide a detailed written report of all activities and findings obtained while conducting this research.