ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT The Hell Bridge Test Arena is a riveted steel bridge taken out of service and moved to new foundations on land to serve as a full-scale laboratory for research within structural health monitoring, inspection, service life estimation and damage detection. The secondary load carrying system of the bridge consists of longitudinal girders connected to cross girders and lies below the bridge deck. Alternative ways of performing inspection and damage detection is explored due to the low accessibility of this system. This paper presents the assessment of a damaged joint using vibration-based damage detection. The objective is to establish an efficient approach to identify structural damage. Results obtained from numerical simulations and field measurements of imposed vibration on key components in the structural system are compared in order to verify the approach.
