VIBRATION-BASED INSPECTION OF RAILWAY BRIDGE SUBSTRUCTURES WITH SMALL VIBRATION EXCITER AND FIBRE OPTIC SENSOR

Abstract

 It is important for periodical inspection and evaluation of bridge substructures facing a danger from earthquake, wind or flood. One of the representative evaluation methods of bridge substructures is a percussion test. The percussion test is to measure a natural frequency obtained from free vibration of the bridge substructure after applying an impact force. The merit of this percussion test is easy, quick and possible to evaluate the performance of the structure quantitatively in the field. Conversely, this percussion test has portability and safety problems. Therefore, a new vibration measurement method with a small vibration exciter is presented in this paper. The proposed method was verified to measure a natural frequency of railway bridge substructures.