Soil–Bridge System Stiffness Identification through Field and Laboratory Measurements
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 10
Abstract
Despite the major advances in finite-element (FE) modeling and system identification (SI) of extended infrastructures, soil compliance and damping at the soil–foundation interface are not often accurately accounted for due to the associated computational demand and the inherent uncertainty in defining the dynamic stiffness. This paper aims to scrutinize the effect of soil conditions in the SI process and to investigate the efficiency of advanced FE modeling in representing the superstructure–soil–foundation stiffness. For this purpose, measured, computed, and experimentally identified natural frequencies of a real bridge were used. Field measurements obtained during construction were reproduced both in the laboratory and by refined FE modeling. In addition, to understand the physical problem more thoroughly, three alternative soil conditions were examined: rock, stabilized soil, and Hostun sand. Discrepancies on the order of 3–13% were observed between the identified and the numerically predicted natural frequencies. These discrepancies highlight the importance of reliable estimation of soil properties and compliance with the SI framework for extended bridges under ambient and low-amplitude vibrations.
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Acknowledgments
The work presented herein was supported by a research grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) organization (Grant No. 57055451, Project: DeGrie Lab-Hybrid and Virtual Experimentation for Infrastructures funded by DAAD, Germany). This support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank K. Papadimitriou (University of Thessaly) for making available the measurements of the prototype structure, as well as G. Manolis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) for scientific input at various stages of this work.
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Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 10 • October 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 10, 2015
Accepted: Feb 10, 2016
Published online: Apr 13, 2016
Discussion open until: Sep 13, 2016
Published in print: Oct 1, 2016
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