Civil Engineering Association

A Damage Identification Procedure for Bridge Structures with Energy Dissipation Devices

This report describes research which focused on developing an effective health monitoring approach for applications to bridges that are protected with the most common seismic response modification devices (SRMD). Emphasis is on those devices tested extensively in the full-scale range of dimension, displacement, velocity and applied load. Devices considered in the project included viscous dampers or energy dissipators. The research included the following tasks: 1) parametric analysis of the effects of damper characteristics; 2) laboratory test on a full scale viscous damper to artificially introduce increasing levels of response degradation; 3) selection of an existing methodology for the assessing existing bridge conditions; 4) validation of the modified methodology using finite element models of an existing isolated bridge; and, 5) validation of the overall procedure with records from a bridge with energy dissipators in new and damaged conditions.