Bridge Health Monitoring

Bridge Health Monitoring


1. Monitoring Background

Modern large-scale bridges are important nodes of main traffic arteries and have a significant impact on the development of transportation. During the long-term use of bridges, environmental erosion, material aging, increasing traffic volume, and the increasing number of heavy and overweight vehicles crossing the bridges have led to structural damage and functional degradation. As a result, the ability to resist natural disasters and even normal environmental effects is reduced, leading to catastrophic accidents in extreme cases, causing significant casualties and property losses. Automated monitoring and diagnosis of bridge structure performance, timely damage assessment and safety warning have become an inevitable requirement for future bridge construction.

2. System Overview

Based on the Internet of Things and big data technology, the bridge health automatic monitoring system carries out long-term automatic online monitoring of the bridge structure, stores the monitoring data in the cloud platform, grasps the bridge health status in real time, and carries out damage assessment and safety warning in time. It provides a reference for the maintenance of the bridge, and provides a guarantee for the healthy operation of the bridge.

 


 

Bridge Health Monitoring Systems

"Real-time monitoring of bridge structural conditions to prevent potential risks and ensure traffic safety, delivering comprehensive structural health assessments through IoT and big data analytics.

 

Safety Assurance

Early detection of hidden defects (e.g., foundation settlement, cable force attenuation) to prevent sudden structural failures.

 

Data-Driven Decisions

Formulate precision maintenance plans (e.g., prioritizing high-risk components) and optimize fund allocation based on analytics.

 

Early Warning

Establishes a multi-tiered alert system that automatically triggers alarms when monitoring data exceeds predefined thresholds, notifying relevant personnel for timely intervention—thus enabling preemptive risk mitigation.

 

Design Validation

Validate and refine future bridge design standards/construction techniques by comparing monitoring data with design models.

 

Lifespan Extension

Delay material degradation (e.g., corrosion control) through preventive maintenance.

 

Emergency Response

Rapid post-disaster (earthquake/collision) structural assessment to guide repairs and traffic control.

Environmental Monitoring

Monitors long-term environmental impacts on the bridge structure, provides environmental load data for structural response analysis, helps distinguish temperature-induced deformation from actual damage, and assesses corrosion risks (e.g., chloride ion ingress).

 
Temperature (Ambient & Structural)
Hygrothermograph / Temperature sensors integrated in instruments (e.g., strain gauges)
Top and bottom slabs of the main girder, surface of the piers, areas near expansion joints.
 
Wind Speed
Mechanical / Ultrasonic Anemometer
Top of the bridge tower, midpoint of the main span, both sides of the bridge deck.
 
Humidity or CI⁻
Hygrometer / CI⁻ Tester
Guardrails on both sides of the bridge deck, pier foundations, underside of the main girder.
 
Rainfall
Tipping-bucket rain gauge, piezoelectric rain gauge, optical rain gauge.
An open, unobstructed elevated location

Deformation Monitoring

Tracks real-time geometric changes in the bridge (settlement, deflection, tilt, etc.), identifies issues such as foundation instability, material creep, or overloads, ensuring structural integrity and driving smoothness/safety.

 
Settlement
GNSS Monitoring / Machine Vision Monitoring (special cases)
Bridge piers, bridge towers, etc.
 
Deflection
Liquid Leveling System / Photoelectric Deflectometer / Dynamic GNSS
Bridge deck
 
Inclination/Tilt
Tiltmeter
Top of the pier, mid-span of the main girder, key sections of the tower column.
 
Relative Deformation
Displacement Sensor / Crack Meter / Deformation Radar, etc.
Bridge abutments, expansion joints, etc.

Stress/Strain Monitoring

Directly measures the stress state of critical components (beams, piers, towers), evaluates consistency between actual load distribution and design expectations, and warns of overloads, fatigue damage, or local failure risks.

 
Concrete Strain
Vibrating Wire Strain Gauge/FBG Strain Gauge/Resistance Strain Gauge
Girder body, bridge tower, bridge pier, etc.
 
Rebar Stress
Rebar stress gauge
Prestressed anchorage zone of the main girder, key sections of the bridge pier.
 
Cable/Stay Force
Vibration Method / Magnetic Flux Method / Millimeter-Wave Radar
Exposed section of cables/stays
 
Bearing Stress
Vibrating Wire Strain Gauge/FBG Strain Gauge/Resistance Strain Gauge
Bearing locations at the bottom of the main girder supports and at the top of the bridge piers.

Vibration Monitoring

Diagnoses structural stiffness degradation (e.g., cracks, connection loosening) or abnormal vibrations (wind-induced or vehicle-resonance vibrations) through changes in dynamic characteristics (natural frequencies, mode shapes), ensuring structural dynamic safety.

 
Bridge Vibration Acceleration
Accelerometer/Vibration Sensor
Bridge tower, bridge pier, bridge body, etc.
 
Bridge Frequency Response
Accelerometer/Vibration Sensor
Bridge tower, bridge pier, bridge body, etc.
 
Dynamic Deformation
Deformation Radar
Main girder, bridge pier, and areas near expansion joints
 
Seismic Ground Motion
Seismic recorders / Microtremor instruments / Low-frequency vibration sensors.
Near the bridge site (on stable geological formations)

Other Specialized Monitoring

The bridge monitoring system also incorporates various sensors—including corrosion monitoring, crack detection, traffic load measurement, and anti-collision systems—delivering comprehensive coverage across all critical dimensions of structural health monitoring to form a fully integrated surveillance network.

 
Cracking
Crack Meter
Location where cracks occur
 
Traffic Load
Weigh-in-motion (WIM) system
Bridge entrance and main traffic lanes
 
Corrosion
Anode Ladders/Atmospheric corrosion meter
Bridge pier, deck etc.
 
Video Surveillance
CCTV
Bridge tower, bridge deck, and bridge piers

System Function


Data Dashboard

Customized data dashboards to meet different customer needs and display various data information.

Real-time Monitoring

24-hour uninterrupted real-time monitoring.

Early Warning

According to the different range of monitoring and control indicators, the early warning is divided into three levels for monitoring process management, and the monitoring data is compared with the three-level early warning value to determine the monitoring and early warning level of the site. And through the platform, SMS and email to notify the relevant responsible person.

Data Analysis

Includes various analysis methods such as comparative analysis, correlation analysis, time-domain analysis, and frequency-domain analysis.

Inspection and Maintenance

Develop inspection plans, record, repair, and maintain diseased parts.

Report Generation

Users can formulate different report generation rules based on customized report templates and general report templates to automatically generate the monitoring data reports they need.

Safety Assessment

Combine inspection record data, monitoring data, and detection data to assign weighted scores to different parts of the structure, and finally obtain the overall safety score of the structure.

 

Design Basis/Standards


Code for Engineering Surveying
(GB 55018-2021)
Comprehensive code for engineering surveying practices.
Technical Code for Monitoring of Building Slope Engineering
(JGJ/T 329-2014)
Technical guidance for monitoring slope stability during building construction.
Unified Standard for Reliability Design of Building Structures
(GB 50068-2018)
Provides reliability principles and calculation methods for structural design.
Code for Design of Building Foundation
(GB 50007-2011)
Requirements and calculations for foundation engineering design.
Code for Design of Building Slope Engineering
(GB 50330-2013)
Design specifications and technical requirements for slope engineering.
Code for Monitoring Measurement of Geotechnical Engineering
(GB 50497-2019)
Standard for geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring methods.
Standard for Construction Quality Acceptance of Building Foundation
(GB 50202-2018)
Criteria for evaluating the quality of foundation construction work.
Standard for Information Model of Building and Municipal Engineering Monitoring
(GB/T 51235-2017)
Defines BIM-based information models for monitoring construction projects.
General Code for Monitoring of Geotechnical Engineering
(GB 50911-2013)
Guidelines for general monitoring of soil and rock mechanics in engineering.
Technical Specification for Highway Slope Monitoring
(JTG/T 3360-02-2019)
Monitoring procedures and instrumentation for highway slopes.
Unified Standard for Construction Quality Acceptance of Building Engineering
(GB 50300-2013)
Comprehensive acceptance standards for construction quality management.
Code for Construction and Acceptance of Building Earthwork
(GB 50195-2019)
Specifies technical construction and acceptance procedures for earthwork projects.
Relevant Construction Design Drawings of Slopes
Detailed technical drawings for project-specific slope engineering designs.
Other Relevant National or Industry Codes and Mandatory Standards
Covers all supplementary mandatory documents related to slope monitoring.
 

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