This bridge has it all! An infrastructure asset owner’s dream, all packed into 45 m and 4.5 m wide, managed by scientists.
It is the brainchild of the Infrastructure Data Analysis with Artificial Intelligence (IDA-KI) research project, which aims to develop methods for the automated analysis and evaluation of monitoring data.
The bridge has a rail-guided load vehicle. Hydraulic presses and a load traverse apply force for static load tests. Thanks to a ‘shaker’ mechanism, its dynamic structural behavior in different frequency ranges can be investigated.
Let’s talk monitoring: air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and precipitation are recorded. There are strain gauges, inductive displacement transducers, an accelerator sensor, and Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS).
About 1.5 km of sensing fibers are installed in the pre-cast elements and in situ. They record strain and temperature, providing ‘the nerves of the structure’.
The high-frequency monitoring data is incorporated into the associated BIM model.
Real-time visualization of both raw sensor readings and aggregated system status are available via a browser. Threshold-based alarms can be automatically triggered to flag anomalies or critical conditions.
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport (BMDV) as part of the mFUND research initiative.
Find out more here from the TU Dresden Institute of Concrete Structures
