Impact force identification on a ferry dock bridge

Abstract

There is a scarcity of literature on the monitoring of operational loads and structural health of coastal infrastructure assets. In this paper we show the very first estimates of the impact force acting on a ferry quay bridge during ferry berthing based on vibration measurements. The input and state of the structure are estimated by means of a joint input-state estimation algorithm in conjunction with a modally reduced-order finite element model. The estimated and measured accelerations are compared, and a strong agreement is found, even when only a limited number of sensors was used, paving the way for an efficient full-scale monitoring of the structure in the long term.