NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING FOR ARCH BRIDGE ASSESSMENT

This paper describes the application of the impulse excitation method to a laboratory brickwork arch bridge. The arch ring alone and then with spandrels was tested. The hammer blow and accompanying transient stress wave is non-destructive, non-intrusive, cost effective, and potentially useful as a supplement to a more traditional bridge assessment. The method described can be used to produce dynamic signatures characterising an arch's behaviour and structural integrity. Linear dynamic finite element analysis predicted the arch's behaviour at each stage, as outlined above. In parallel with the hammer tests, steady state mass shakers were used in an attempt to analyse the arch's behaviour by means of a different non-destructive test: the transient excitation, or hammer blow, method was demonstrably superior to the steady state, or shaker, method.

• INTRODUCTION

• INSTRUMENTATION & TEST DETAILS

• FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

• EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

• CONCLUSIONS

• REFERENCES