Bridge Engineering

 

Summary of Activities

A bridge structure is an important component in the transportation system of a country. When it is taken out of service for whatever reason, the daily activities in the local area and economic activities in the whole country would be greatly affected. The Centre thus focuses on the design and maintenance of bridges including the long span suspension and cable-stayed bridges and the short and medium span bridges to mitigate any bridge-related hazards. Technological Services provided include the following:

  • Assessment of loading on bridges
  • Bridge-vehicle interaction studies
  • Conduction of full scale field tests on bridges including various dynamic and static tests
  • Control on human response to dynamic motion of bridges
  • Determination of bridge loading carrying capacity
  • Evaluation of existing bridges
  • Interpretation of bridge design codes and standards
  • Loading codes development for bridges in Hong Kong
  • Parametric vibration of cable-stayed bridges
  • Repair and rehabilitation of bridges 
  • Structural health monitoring on bridges

Bridge Structural Health Monitoring

Representative Projects

  • Accounting for bridge dynamic loads using Moving Force Identification System (MFIS)
  • Assessment of highway loadings from bridge responses
  • Assessment of load-carrying performance of prestressed concrete bridges
  • Bridge condition assessment under operating loads
  • Condition assessment of prestressed concrete box-section bridge deck with reliability-based results
  • Damage assessment of highway bridges
  • Dynamic interaction of railway systems with long span cable-supported bridges under turbulent wind
  • Evaluation of dynamic loads for bridge design in Hong Kong
  • Evolution of damage in bridge beam for damage assessment
  • Fatigue evaluation of existing bridges based on continuum damage mechanics and online monitoring
  • Feasibility of vibration approaches for damage detection of Tsing Ma, Kap Shui Mun and Ting Kau Bridges
  • Innovative optical fibre sensors for structural health monitoring of bridges
  • Monitoring of tests on the Shantou Bay Bridge during construction & immediately after completion
  • Vibration monitoring of Lantau Fixed Crossing

 

Static Load Test on Shantou Bay Bridge

 

Installation of Sensors for Measurement on an existing bridge

Full-scale dynamic test on a three-span box-section bridge

Major Facilities

  • Four Servo-loop Controlled MTS Actuators
  • One B & K 16 Channel Spectrum Analyser
  • One 270 tons Universal Testing Machine
  • One 1000 tons loading frame
  • Structural testing laboratory with strong floor and strong wall for both vertical and horizontal load tests
  • Three Loading Frames to carrying out Static and Dynamic Tests on sizeable structural members/frames and models with loads that can be applied to both vertical and horizontal directions

Measurement station at the back of a van for dynamic measurement of a bridge

 

Select Publications

1.          Bu, J.Q., Law, S.S. and Zhu, X.Q. (2006) “Innovative bridge damage assessment from dynamic response of a passing vehicle”, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE. 132(12): 1372-1379.

2.      Law, S.S. and Zhu, X.Q. (2004) “Dynamic behavior of damaged concrete bridge structures under moving vehicular loads”, Engineering Structures, 26(9): 1279-1293.

3.      Law, S.S., Bu, J.Q., Zhu, X.Q. and Chan, S.L. (2004) “Vehicle axle loads identification on bridges using finite element method”, Engineering Structures, 26(8): 1143-1153.

4.      Law, S.S., Wu, Z.M. and Chan, S.L. (2004) “Vibration control study of a suspension footbridge using hybrid slotted bolted connection elements”, Engineering Structures, 26(1): 107-116.

5.          Law, S.S. and Zhu, X.Q. (2005) “Dynamic bridge responses due to road surface roughness and braking of vehicle”, Journal of Sound and Vibration. 282(3-5): 805-830.

6.      Law, S.S., Bu, J.Q., Zhu, X.Q. and Chan, S.L. (2006) “Vehicle Condition Surveillance on Continuous Bridges based on Response Sensitivity”, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE. 132(1): 78-86.

7.      Law, S.S., Yang, Q.S. and Fang, Y.L. (2007) “Experimental studies on possible vortex shedding in a suspension bridge. Part I - Structural dynamic characteristics and analysis model”, Wind and Structures, 10(6): 543-554.

8.      Law, S.S., Yang, Q.S. and Fang, Y.L. (2007) “Experimental studies on possible vortex shedding in a suspension bridge. Part II - Results when under typhoon BABS and YORK”, Wind and Structures, 10(6): 555-576.

9.          Law, S.S., Zhu, X.Q., Bu, J.Q. and Chan, S.L. (2007) “Moving load identification on a simply supported orthotropic plate”, International Journal of Mechanical Sciences. 49(11): 1262-1275

10.   Law, S.S., Wu, S.Q. and Shi, Z.Y. (2008) “Moving load and prestress identification using wavelet-based method”, Journal of Applied Mechanics, ASME, 75(2): 021014.

11.       Xia, Y., and Fujino, Y., (2006) “Auto-parametric Vibration of A Cable-Stayed-Beam structure under Random Excitation”, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, 132 (3): 279-286.

12.       Xia, Y., Hao, H., and Deeks, A.J., (2007) “Dynamic Assessment of Shear Connectors in Slab-Girder Bridges”, Engineering Structures, 29 (7): 1475-1486.

13.       Xia, Y., Hao, H., Deeks, A.J. and Zhu, X.Q. (2008) “Condition Assessment of Shear Connectors in Slab-girder Bridges via Vibration Measurements”, Journal of Bridge Engineering, ASCE, 13 (1): 43-54.

14.   Zhu, X.Q. and Law, S.S. (2002) “Practical aspects in moving load identification”, Journal of Sound and Vibration. 258(1): 123-146.

15.   Zhu, X.Q. and Law, S.S. (2002) “Moving loads identification through regularization method”, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, 128(9): 989-1000.

16.   Zhu, X.Q. and Law, S.S. (2002) “Dynamic load on continuous multi-lane bridge deck from moving vehicles”, Journal of Sound and Vibration. 251(4): 697-716.

17.   Zhu, X.Q. and Law, S.S. (2003) “Dynamic axle and wheel loads identification: Laboratory studies”, Journal of Sound and Vibration. 268(5): 855-879.

18.   Zhu, X.Q. and Law, S.S. (2003) “Time domain identification of moving loads on bridge deck”, Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, ASME, 125(2): 187-198.

19.   Zhu, X.Q. and Law, S.S. (2003) “Dynamic behaviour of orthotropic rectangular plate under moving loads”, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, 129(1): 79-87.

20.   Zhu, X.Q. and Law, S.S. (2006) “Moving load identification on multi-span continuous bridges with elastic bearings”, Mechanical System and Signal Processing. 20(7): 1759-1782.

21.   Zhu, X.Q. and Law, S.S. (2006) “Wavelet-based crack identification of bridge beam from operational deflection time history”, International Journal of Solids and Structures. 43(7-8): 2299-2317.

22.       Zhu, X.Q. and Law, S.S. (2007) “Damage detection in simply supported concrete bridge structure under moving vehicular loads”, Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, ASME, 129(1): 58-65.

 

Hotspot Stress Analysis for Fatigue Life Prediction on Tsing Ma Bridge

 

Contact Information of the contact person

Dr. Siu-Seong Law
Department of Civil & Structural Engineering
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Kowloon, Hong Kong

Fax:     + 852 - 2334 6389
Phone:   + 852 - 2766 6062
E-mail:  cesslaw@polyu.edu.hk

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Research Centre for Urban Hazards Mitigation