Monitoring and safety evaluation of civil engineering structures

Maintenance and monitoring of civil engineering structures and in particular of bridges is of great importance in terms of national economy. Reliable inspection and evaluation of the condition of civil engineering structures will therefore be an important task in future. It is the objective of monitoring methods to observe the condition development and safety, to identify damages at an early stage and thus to ensure the load-bearing capacity and serviceability. In order to provide a basis for, the following questions are answered by our methods:

• Are there any damages to the construction?
• If damages are present, where are they locate?
• What is the extent of the damage, are immediate measures required?
• Is the structure able to fulfil the future function, what is remaining life time of the structure?

In order to answer these questions, the real bearing capacity of the structure is derived by vibration measurements and subsequently a "Finite-Element-Model" is adjusted to the results of the measurements by a so-called model-updating routine. Thus a mathematical model is obtained, which accurately corresponds with the realistic response of the structure. The basic measurements as well as the simulation serve as basis for of the interpretation of follow-up measurements. For future assessment, a periodic or continuous monitoring approach may be used(www.reichsbruecke.net).