Computational & Technology Resources
an online resource for computational,
engineering & technology publications
Civil-Comp Proceedings
ISSN 1759-3433
CCP: 104
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY: RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE
Edited by: J. Pombo
Paper 69

Monitoring of Railway Viaducts and Bridges

H. De Backer, A. Outtier, K. Schotte, W. Nagy and P. Van Bogaert

Department of Civil Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium

Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper
H. De Backer, A. Outtier, K. Schotte, W. Nagy, P. Van Bogaert, "Monitoring of Railway Viaducts and Bridges", in J. Pombo, (Editor), "Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK, Paper 69, 2014. doi:10.4203/ccp.104.69
Keywords: railway viaduct, strain, accelerometer, monitoring, structural assessment, steel box, long-term temperature effects.

Summary
Monitoring of structural parameters during construction can be an important aid during execution. Especially when studying the long-term behaviour of structures, e.g. build-up of ground pressures or fatigue effects, it can become necessary to resort to monitoring. This research paper discusses two such projects: the "Iris" railway viaduct and the Pede viaduct, both near Brussels, Belgium. This article gives an overview of these experiences and on the lessons learned and structural consequences. When looking at the long-term behaviour of a structure, both temperature changes and strains are important values to register. It seems as if the daily variations of the temperature have an important influence on the structure, even more so than the strain variations measured during static load tests. A conclusion could be that daily temperature variations cannot be neglected in the design although often regarded as a minor load, especially for railway structures where joints are often located further apart. Although this paper reflects the structural assessment of two projects in particular, these techniques are applicable for several other structures and therefore contribute to an improved understanding of both existing structures as well as future design possibilities.

purchase the full-text of this paper (price £20)

go to the previous paper
go to the next paper
return to the table of contents
return to the book description
purchase this book (price £65 +P&P)