Damage Identification on Steel Torsional Bracings Based on Dynamic Monitoring (original) (raw)

Structural Health Monitoring is nowadays a field of great concern due to the constant aging of infrastructures. The request of structural reliability evaluation and remaining life assessment is, therefore, assuming a major importance in order to reduce the maintenance costs and to increase the safety level of the structures. The Europabrücke is an important and well-known Austrian steel bridge located on the highway connecting Austria with Italy through the Brenner Pass and characterized by a high traffic level. In this context, the assessment of the structural conditions is a critical issue. In this contribution, the experimental and numerical investigation carried out on the torsional bracings of the Europabrücke are presented and discussed in detail.