Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

In the case of the monitoring of bridges, the determination of vertical displacements is one of the most important issues. A new measuring system has been developed and implemented for assessment of railway bridges based on measurements of the structural response to passing trains. The system uses inertial sensors: Inclinometers and accelerometers that do not need any referential points. The system records signals related to the passage of a train over a monitored bridge. The signals from inclinometers before the train's entry are used to determine the static movement. Integrated signals from inclinometers and accelerometers are used to determine dynamic displacements when the train goes through the bridge. Signals from inclinometers are used to determine the so-called "quasi-static" component of the displacement and signal from the accelerometer to determine the dynamic component. Field tests have been carried out on a viaduct along a high-speed railway line. Periodic comparative measurements are carried out using a Total Station to verify static measurements and using inductive sensors to verify dynamic measurements. Tests of the system carried out so far have proven its usefulness for monitoring bridges in a high-speed railway (up to 200 km/h) with high accuracy while determining dynamic displacements.

bridge monitoring, dynamic and static displacements, inertial sensors, total station, indirect measurement

Aircraft touchdown is one of the most difficult and dangerous phases of a flight. The paper presents an aerial light aircraft, prepared and produced by vibroacoustic tests, using an aircraft landing and landing monitoring system (AVI). The concept is based on the use of an ultrasonic transceiver head and vibration transducer, together with an appropriate signal processing and analysis system. The system measures the touchdown speed and altitude of the aircraft in the final phase of the flight and determines the level of load transmitted to the aircraft during the landing. Thanks to data archiving, it allows for better estimation of the wear rate of the structure, which is important in determining the causes of possible malfunction. It can be used with light and ultralight aircraft and, after adaptation, in unmanned aircraft. It can also be used to evaluate the art of piloting during landing.

aircraft landing, landing monitoring system

A railway bridge has been the object of investigation in the context of structural health monitoring (SHM). The current work is focused on utilization of experimental data for refining a numerical model of the structure as well as on tests of dynamic excitations using a controlled hydraulic shaker and passing trains. The numerical model has been matched to experimental measurements using experimental modal analysis - classical and operational. The tailored SHM system for monitoring of the bridge consists of 15 piezoelectric strain sensors taking advantage of wireless communication for data transfer. Experimental responses of the bridge collected by the SHM system are confronted with the ones produced by the FE numerical model of the bridge. The long-term objective of the investigation is to elaborate a method for assessment of structural condition and prediction of remaining lifetime of the bridge.

Bridge Monitoring, Experimental Measurements, Modal Analysis, Wireless SHM

A railway bridge has been the object of investigation since mid 2007 as a response to increasing interest in structural health monitoring (SHM) from Polish Railways. It is a typical 40 m long, steel truss structure spanning a channel in Nieporet near Warsaw. There is over 1500 similar bridges in the railway network in Poland. The integrated system consists of two components – weigh in motion (WIM) part for identification of train load and SHM part for assessing the state of the bridge. Two aspects of wireless transmission are considered – short range (in the vicinity of the bridge, 2.4GHz) and far range (from the bridge to the data analysis center, GSM). The system is designed to be energetically self-sufficient, batteries are recharged by solar panels. Both the subsystems use piezoelectric strain sensors. Numerical model of the bridge corresponds well to the experimental data and provides a good starting point for considering different scenarios of simulated damage in the structure.

SHM, Piezo sensors, Wireless transmission, Bridge dynamics, Railway infrastructure

The article presents the railway bridge structures monitoring system, which takes advantage of the dynamic response measurement and evaluation method. The monitoring system is focused on steel structures with the spans exceeding 30 m. The elaboration of the method which uses inclinometers together with an accelerometer for indirect displacement measurement under the dynamic load is the main achievement of the project.

monitoring, railway bridges, inclinometer, accelerometer

In the last years one can observe an increasing interest in structural health monitoring (SHM) from Polish Railways. There are several hundreds of steel truss bridges of various spans and similar topologies in Polish railway infrastructure. One of them, located over a canal in Nieporęt near Warsaw with span of 40m became an object of investigation and implementation of an integrated SHM system. The system consists of two components – weigh in motion (WIM) part for identification of train load and SHM part for assessing the bridge state. The WIM module supplies load data required for SHM inverse analyses, however it can operate as an independent system for monitoring of railway traffic providing information about axle loads and rolling stock identification. Many in-situ installations of SHM systems suffer from a troublesome and time- consuming way of data acquisition via standard cables. In order to facilitate data collection related with this way of acquisition, an alternative solution of wireless transmission of the measured data from the field to analysis centre is proposed. Two aspects of wireless transmission are considered – short range (in the vicinity of the bridge) and far range (from the bridge to the centre of analysis). This paper takes up the practical issue of design and implementation of the integrated SHM system for truss steel railway bridge with a special insight into the monitoring of railway traffic.

Structural Health Monitoring, monitoring of steel railway bridges

In the last years one can observe an increasing interest in structural health monitoring (SHM) from Polish Railways. There are several hundreds of steel truss bridges of various spans and similar topologies in Polish railway infrastructure. One of them, located over a canal in Nieporęt near Warsaw with span of 40m became an object of investigation and implementation of an integrated SHM system.
The system consists of two components – weigh in motion (WIM) part for identification of train load and SHM part for assessing the bridge state. The WIM module supplies load data required for SHM inverse analyses, however it can operate as an independent system for monitoring of railway traffic providing information about axle loads and rolling stock identification.
Many in-situ installations of SHM systems suffer from a troublesome and time-consuming way of data acquisition via standard cables. In order to facilitate data collection related with this way of acquisition, an alternative solution of wireless transmission of the measured data from the field to analysis centre is proposed. Two aspects of wireless transmission are considered – short range (in the vicinity of the bridge) and far range (from the bridge to the centre of analysis).
This paper takes up the practical issue of design and implementation of the integrated SHM system for truss steel railway bridge with a special insight into the monitoring of railway traffic.

SHM systems, monitoring of railway bridges

In-situ measurements collected with standard cabling suffer from the serious disadvantage of no automation, which implies frequent visits to the monitored structure in order to gather the requested data. For minimizing the man effort involved, a system of wireless transmission (WT) of in-situ collected data has been proposed. Principal ideas of such system should be pretty universal in a number of applications related to structural health monitoring (SHM). However each WT system should be customized for a specific application to provide the best performance. The proposed WT system is dedicated to rail traffic monitoring and SHM of railway bridges. The idea is to design smart sensors to be mounted on the bridge and equipped with electronic modules for short-range wireless transfer of SHM data. The far-range wireless transfer from the local bridge unit to a remote analysis centre will be performed using the GSM technology.

SHM, monitoring of railway bridges