Bridge Surface Roughness Identified from the Displacement Influence Lines of the Contact Points by Two Connected Vehicles

Abstract

In this study, a new, effective procedure is proposed for identifying the surface roughness from the responses recorded of two connected test vehicles moving over the bridge. Central to this study is the proposal of a simple static correlation formula for relating the dynamic deflections of the two vehicles’s contact points on the bridge, via the displacement influence lines (DILs). With the aid of this relation, the roughness formula for estimating the bridge surface profile is derived using the responses of the leading and following vehicles. It does not require any prior knowledge of the dynamic properties of the bridge. The efficacy of the proposed procedure is validated for both the simple and three-span continuous beams by the finite element method (FEM). Also, a parametric study is conducted for various physical properties of the test vehicles. It is confirmed that the roughness profiles back-calculated from the proposed formula agree excellently with the assumed ones for both the simple and continuous beams. For use in practice, the two connected test vehicles should not be designed too heavy and not to move at too fast speeds, in order to reduce the impact on the bridge.