ABSTRACT
This study is intended to discuss a statistical real-time scour depth estimation by use of vibration monitoring of a railway bridge pier. Recently, scour has been one of the most critical threats for bridges crossing rivers around the world because of intensive rainfalls. One novel technology to assess the ground condition around the pier during a swollen river water period is to identify its natural frequency from microtremors. To make a fast and accurate decision for bridge operation during the swollen river water period, a way of providing real-time information on scour depth, which is intuitively acceptable, estimated from identified frequency and Finite Element Model is proposed. Long-term vibration monitoring data of in-service railway bridge pier is used to investigate the possibility of scour progress timely during a flood period and a proposed method demonstrated that the probability that scour progresses beneath the footing is extremely low.
