Structure Health Monitoring of a Skew Filler Beam Railway Bridge

Assessment of the security of the structure can be analyzed with a finite element model updating method using experimental modal data. Uncertainties of parameters should be taken into account with the probabilistic method to minimize the difference between the measured modal parameters and the corresponding analytical predictions. In the paper, this procedure is illustrated with one skew filler beam railway bridge in France. As the first step of this investigation, an ambient modal test was performed on this bridge. The dynamic characteristics of the bridge were identified by applying the program of Sys_ident (developed by LCPC & SNCF) which is based on the random decrement technique. One finite element model was analysed and updated using the probabilistic method according to the experimental results. At the end, an accurate assessment of the security of the structure was carried out.