Monitoring Bridges

[dik]

I came across this tonight, and it may be useful in future.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/03/1062731/monitor-bridges-crowdsourcing/

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So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[3DDave]

I could foresee it helping for bridges subject to major, overall loss of section, but most bridge failures seem to be from a small, overloaded area that doesn't contribute enough to the stiffness of the bridge to be identifiable - the bridge deflection might change by adding a bias of less than 0.25 inches before the onset of failure.

The complete article:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-022-00025-4

It would have been helpful if the researchers had explained how the data is converted to explicit actions to extend the bridge service life.

To get the data they need that data from a crowd. How will that crowd be sourced? I could see Google adding this to their driving direction software - how much will Google charge for access to that data?

Considering that bridge that collapsed in Philadelphia had parts that were so corroded they had disconnected it's not clear that detection is the critical part of the effort.

In terms of crowd sourcing - a member of the crowd had sent photographs and the responsible agency did no repairs.

https://www.post-gazette.com/local/...-point-breeze-frick-park/stories/202201280107

Instead of replacing the failed part they completely removed it.

 

[dik]

I don't know... but it can't hurt, and often people pass by old, out of the way, bridge structures. It can supplement regular inspections.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik