Ambient and Vehicle-Induced Vibration Data of a Steel Truss Bridge Subject to Artificial Damage

Abstract

Ambient and vehicle-induced bridge vibration tests are two important ways of collecting data for the purpose of system identification and performance evaluation of bridges. A common bridge form that has been very popular over the past number of decades is the steel truss bridge; this paper presents the vibration data of a steel truss bridge situated in Japan: the Old ADA bridge. The target bridge was built in 1959 and removed in 2012. Prior to the removal of the bridge, both ambient and vehicle-induced vibration data were collected. Five different damage scenarios were designed to represent different real-world cases by introducing artificial damage in the truss. In Case A, there was no damage; in Case B, one vertical member of the truss was cut to half its section depth at the bridge midspan; in Case C, the same vertical member at midspan was fully cut; in Case D, the vertical member cut was repaired and recovered; in Case E, one vertical member at the 5/8th span was fully cut. Ambient and vehicle-induced vibration data were collected for each case. Full-scale bridge damage tests of this nature are rare, and thus the collected data will be helpful in the research of system identification and damage detection using both ambient and vehicle-induced vibration data, providing a benchmark structure for structural health monitoring using data in real bridges.