UCD School of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Scoil na hlnnealtóireachta Comhshaoil, Struchtúr agus Sibhialta UCD
Infrastructure Monitoring
Condition Monitoring
Commissioned vibration tests were recently completed on the newly opened Sean O’Casey footbridge in Dublin city centre. Knowledge of the static and dynamic properties of structural systems enables owners to include formal condition monitoring as part of their management and assessment programs. With the purchase of a dedicated operational model analysis suite of hardware and software, and the increasing realisation amongst design consultants that confirmation of the static and dynamic properties of new build bridges is both necessary and instructive, it is anticipated that activity in this area will grow significantly.
Fig2. Sean O'Casey Bridge - Dublin City Centre
Contact: Paul.Fanning@ucd.ie
Soft Load Testing
Specifications for dynamic amplification of static stresses in bridges are necessarily conservative. This conservatism can lead to the unnecessary rehabilitation, strengthening or demolition of an old structure. This project shows that it is possible to take measurements under regular traffic for a about a month and hence to find a very accurate estimate of dynamic amplification for a bridge. It will have profound implications for bridge assessment as it will greatly reduce the allowance that will need to be made for dynamics.
Contact: eugene.obrien@ucd.ie, arturo.gonzalez@ucd.ie
The Use of an Instrumented Vehicle to Monitor Transport Infrastructure
Road profiles are a useful measure of the condition of a road. Existing methods of measuring the profile are based on expensive profilometers that use lasers to take physical measurements of the road irregularities. This project proposes the collection of data from accelerometers in existing cars and the use of this widely available and inexpensive data to estimate the road condition. The frequencies at which a bridge vibrates are an important measure of its condition. This project uses a vehicle to obtain the bridge frequencies from the vehicle vibrations without the need for bridge instrumentation.
Fig. Road profile carpet
Contact: eugene.obrien@ucd.ie, arturo.gonzalez@ucd.ie
