Abstract
Today, railroads carry 40% of the US freight tonnage and this demand will double in 20 years. North American railroad infrastructure includes approximately 100,000 bridges spanning over 140,000 miles of tracks. Half of those bridges are over 100 years old. Measuring deflection time history of railroad bridges under train load can assist in quantifying the reliability and increasing the safety of railroad operations throughout the network. However, obtaining bridge deflection is often difficult to collect in the field due to the lack of fixed reference points from where to measure. Although reference-free acceleration can be used to estimate the dynamic deflection through double integration, the algorithms are difficult to develop and apply because of the complicated integration constants selected for the data post-processing. This research studies the reference-free dynamic deflection (vertical displacement) acquisition approaches, a sensing system composed of one passive-servo electro-magnetic-induction (PSEMI) velocity sensor and one built-in hardware integrator unit. This research has presented two promising reference-free dynamic deflection acquisition approaches, direct reference-free displacement measurement from a sensing system composed of one passive-servo electro-magnetic-induction (PSEMI) velocity sensor and one built-in hardware integrator unit, and a reference-free displacement estimation from accelerometer by Lee-Method, that can be used for evaluating the performance and safety of railroad bridges under service load. Using the passive-servo feedback electrical control technology, the PSEMI velocity sensor provides a low-frequency direct reference-free measurement performance with its small size and light weight. Using a finite impulse response (FIR) filtering instead of double integrating, the displacement can be estimated from acceleration without the integration errors from unknown integration constants and boundary conditions. Researchers used an ASCE steel truss bridge model and an MTS actuator to quantify the accuracy of the PSEMI sensing system. The actuator replicated various harmonic motions and real bridge vertical displacements under train-crossing events measured in the field. The direct dynamic reference-free displacements measured by PSEMI sensing system and the indirect dynamic reference-free displacements estimated by acceleration using Lee-Method were compared to reference displacements measured by LVDT. The experimental results show that the direct reference-free dynamic displacement sensing system and indirect reference-free displacement estimation method from acceleration are two promising alternatives to railroad bridge deflection under train loading, without the need to a fixed reference frame.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA): Freight Rail Today (2016) https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0362 (11 Oct 2016)
Moreu, F., Li, J., Jo, H., Kim, R., Scola, S., Spencer Jr., B., LaFave, J.M.: Reference-free displacements for condition assessment of timber railroad bridges. J. Bridg. Eng. 04015052 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0000805
Moreu, F., LaFave, J.M.: Current Research Topics: Railroad Bridges and Structural Engineering. Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign (2012)
Wipf, T.J., Ritter, M.A., Wood, D.L.: Evaluation and field load testing of Timber Railroad Bridge. In: Fifth International Bridge Engineering Conference, TRR Number 1696, Paper No. 5B0112, pp. 323–333, Washington, DC (2000)
Moreu, F., Jo, H., Li, J., Kim, R.E., Cho, S., Kimmle, A., Scola, S., Le, H., Spencer Jr., B.F., LaFave, J.M.: Dynamic assessment of timber railroad bridges using displacements. J. Bridg. Eng. 20(10), NSEL-032 04014114, Urbana, IL, USA (2014)
Hou, X., Yang, X., Huang, Q.: Using inclinometers to measure bridge deflection. J. Bridg. Eng. 10(5), 564–569 (2005)
Yu, Y., Liu, H., Li, D., Mao, X., Ou, J.: Bridge deflection measurement using wireless mems inclination sensor systems. Int. J. Smart Sens. Intell. Syst. 6(1), (2013)
Zhang, W., Sun, L.M., Sun, S.W.: Bridge-deflection estimation through inclinometer data considering structural damages. J. Bridg. Eng. 22(2), 04016117 (2016)
Fukuda, Y., Feng, M.Q., Shinozuka, M.: Cost-506 effective vision-based system for monitoring dynamic response of civil engineering structures. Struct. Control. Health Monit. 17, 918–936 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1002/stc.360
Feng, M., Fukuda, Y., Feng, D., Mizuta, M.: Nontarget vision sensor for remote measurement of bridge dynamic response. J. Bridg. Eng. 04015023 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0000747
Rice, J.A., Changzhi, L., Changzhan, G., Hernandez, J.C.: A wireless multifunctional radar-based displacement sensor for structural health monitoring. Sensors and smart structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2011. Edited by Tomizuka, Masayoshi. Proceedings of the SPIE. 7981, 79810K-79810K-11 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.879243
Zhao, X., Liu, H., Yu, Y., Xu, X., Hu, W., Li, M., Jingping, O.: Bridge displacement monitoring method based on laser projection-sensing technology. Sensors. 15(4), 8444–8463 (2015)
Psimoulis, P., Stiros, S.: Measuring deflections of a short-span railway bridge using a Robotic Total Station (RTS). J. Bridg. Eng. 18(2), 182–185 (2013)
Watson, C., Watson, T., Coleman, R.: Structural monitoring of cable-stayed bridge: analysis of GPS versus modeled deflections. J. Surv. Eng. 133(1), 23–28 (2007)
Boore, D.M.: Analog-to-digital conversion as a source of drifts in displacements derived from digital recordings of ground acceleration. Bull.Seismol. Soc. Am. 93(5), 2017–2024 (2003)
Gindy, M., Vaccaro, R., Nassif, H., Velde, J.: A state-space approach for deriving bridge displacement from acceleration. Comput. Aided. Civ. Inf. Eng. 23(4), 281–290 (2008)
Hester, D., Brownjohn, J., Bocian, M., Xu, Y.: Low cost bridge load test: calculating bridge displacement from acceleration for load assessment calculations. Eng. Struct. 143, 358–374 (2017)
Park, K.-T., Kim, S.-H., Park, H.-S., Lee, K.-W.: The determination of bridge displacement using measured acceleration. Eng. Struct. 27(3), 371–378 (2005)
Cho, S., Park, J.W., Palanisamy, R.P., Sim, S.H.: Reference-free displacement estimation of bridges using Kalman filter-based multimetric data fusion. J. Sens. 2016 (2016)
Gomez, J.A., Ozdagli, A.I. and Moreu, F. (2016). Application of Low-Cost Sensors for Estimation of Reference-Free Displacements Under Dynamic Loading for Railroad Bridges Safety. In ASME 2016 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems (pp. V001T05A021-V001T05A021). American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Lee, H.S., Hong, Y.H., Park, H.W.: Design of an FIR filter for the displacement reconstruction using measured acceleration in low-frequency dominant structures. Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 82(4), 403–434 (2010)
Ozdagli, A.I., Gomez, J.A., Moreu, F.: Real-time reference-free displacement of railroad bridges during train-crossing events. J. Bridg. Eng. 22(10), 04017073 (2017)
Clinton, J.F., Heaton, T.H.: Potential advantages of a strong-motion velocity meter over a strong-motion accelerometer. Seismol. Res. Lett. 73(3), 332–342 (2002)
Shuanglan, C., Jun, L., Hongyuan, Y., et al.: Low frequency expansion technologies applied in deep seismic exploration geophones. Prog. Geophys. 27(5), 1904–1911 (2012)
Yang, X., Gao, F., Xingmin, H.: Low-frequency characteristics extension for vibration sensors. Earthq. Eng. Eng. Vib. 3(1), 139–146 (2004)
Qinglei, C., Wei, H., Xianlong, H.: A vibration-measuring system based on passive servo vibration pickups. J. Vib. Shock. 4, 039, 153--156, 167 (2009)
Qinglei, C., Yang, X., Shuaiku, S.: Passive servo feedback multi output low frequency vibration sensor. Chin. J. Sci. Instrum. 38(1), 105–111 (2017)
Debao, L., Lu, Q.: Analysis of Experiments of Engineering Vibration. Tsinghua University Press, Beijing, China (2004)
Acknowledgements
The financial support for this research came from the following sources that are gratefully acknowledged: The Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of New Mexico; the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51208107); and the China Scholarship Council Foundation (No. 201604190028). The authors of this paper thank the Canadian National Railway (CN) for the bridge displacement data collected in the field, and Mr. Rahulreddy Chennareddy from the Department of Civil Engineering, University of New Mexico for his support in the configuration of MTS actuator system. The conclusions of this research are solely those of the authors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Liu, B., Ozdagli, A., Moreu, F. (2019). Direct Reference-Free Dynamic Deflection Measurement of Railroad Bridge under Service Load. In: Wee Sit, E., Walber, C., Walter, P., Wicks, A., Seidlitz, S. (eds) Sensors and Instrumentation, Aircraft/Aerospace and Energy Harvesting , Volume 8. Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Mechanics Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74642-5_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74642-5_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74641-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74642-5
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)