Numerical simulation of damage scenarios of bridge Z24

In order to maintain the reliability of civil engineering structures, it is important to develop a non-destructive technique that can detect damage in a structure before it can be done visually. The technique must be able to observe damage, secondly, to localize the damage and finally to give an idea of the severity of the damage. The non-destructive technique presented in the paper is based on vibration monitoring and relies on the fact that a decrease in stiffness of a civil engineering structure will result in a change of modal characteristics. In a second step, the change of modal parameters is translated into a damage pattern in the structure. From an existing post-tensioned concrete bridge in Switzerland, a finite element beam model is set up. The damage scenarios that will be applied to the bridge are simulated numerically. Updating technique based on the sensitivity approach will be applied to the simulated data in order to predict the damage location and severity using the change in the modal characteristics.