Monitoring of the Great Belt Bridge hanger vibrations and expansion joint movements using Digital Image Correlation

Abstract

Civil infrastructure system owners are often faced with an increasingly impossible set of management challenges. Informed decisions on timely intervention for effective bridge maintenance activities rely on good quality, accurate and reliable asset condition data. Digital image correlation (DIC) is a noncontact photogrammetry technique that can be used for monitoring by imaging a bridge component periodically and computing strain and deformation from images without traffic disruption. This paper describes the use of DIC for the monitoring of the Great Belt Bridge wind‐induced hanger vibrations and temperature‐induced movements of the expansion joint. Both DIC measurements provided previously unavailable data and informed next steps with respect to the maintenance strategy. To the authors knowledge these are one of the first such vision‐based structural health monitoring campaigns carried out on a suspension bridge.