Many bridges worldwide are approaching the end of their lifespan and it is necessary to assess their health condition in order to mitigate risks, prevent disasters, and plan maintenance activities in an optimized manner. Fracture critical bridges are of particular interest since they have only little or no load path redundancy. Structural health monitoring (SHM) has recently emerged as a branch of engineering, which aim is to improve the assessment of structural condition. Distributed optical fiber sensing technology has opened new possibilities in SHM. A distributed deformation sensor (sensing cable) is sensitive at each point of its length to strain changes and cracks. Such a sensor practically monitors a one-dimensional strain field and can be installed over all the length of the monitored structural members, thereby providing with integrity monitoring, i.e. direct detection and characterization (including recognition, localization, and quantification or rating) of local strain changes generated by damage. Integrity monitoring principles are developed and presented in this article. A large scale laboratory test and a real on-site application are briefly presented.

SUMMARYStructural health monitoring (SHM) is a process aimed at providing accurate and in‐time information concerning structural health condition and performance, which can serve as an objective basis for decision‐making regarding operation, maintenance, and repair. However, at the current state of practice, SHM is less used on real structures, and one reason for this is the lack of understanding of the Value of Information obtained from SHM. Consequently, even when SHM is implemented, bridge managers often make decisions based on experience or common sense, frequently considering with reserve and sometimes disregarding the suggestions arising from SHM. Managers weigh the SHM results based on their prior perception of the state of the structure and the confidence that they have in the specific applied SHM system and then make decisions considering the perceived effects of the actions they can undertake. In order to address and overcome the aforementioned identified limitations in the use of the SHM, a rational framework for assessment of the impact of the SHM on decision‐making is researched and proposed in this paper. The framework is based on the concept of Value of Information and demonstrated on the case study of the Streicker Bridge, a new pedestrian bridge on Princeton University campus. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

SUMMARY Crack occurrence and propagation are among critical factors that affect the performance and lifespan of civil infrastructures such as bridges, pipelines, and so on. As a consequence, numerous crack detection and characterization techniques have been researched and developed in the past decades in the areas of SHM and non‐destructive evaluation (NDE). The significant amount of performed studies and the large number of publications give rise to the need to systematize, condensate, and summarize this enormous effort. The aims of this paper are to summarize the knowledge about cracking and its sources, review both existing and emerging methods for crack detection and characterization, and identify the advantages and challenges for these methods. In general, this paper identifies two sensing approaches (direct and indirect) and two data analysis approaches (model‐based and model‐free or data‐driven) along with a range of associated technologies. The advantages and challenges of each approach and technology are discussed and summarized, and the future research needs are identified. This paper is intended to serve as a reference for researchers who are interested in crack detection and characterization as well as for those who are generally interested in SHM and NDE. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reliable early-stage damage detection requires continuous monitoring over large areas of structure, and with sensors of high spatial resolution. Technologies based on Large Area Electronics (LAE) can enable direct sensing and can be scaled to the level required for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of civil structures and infrastructure. Sensing sheets based on LAE contain dense arrangements of thin-film strain sensors, associated electronics and various control circuits deposited and integrated on a flexible polyimide substrate that can cover large areas of structures. This paper presents the development stage of a prototype strain sensing sheet based on LAE for crack detection and localization. Two types of sensing-sheet arrangements with size 6 × 6 inch (152 × 152 mm) were designed and manufactured, one with a very dense arrangement of sensors and the other with a less dense arrangement of sensors. The sensing sheets were bonded to steel plates, which had a notch on the boundary, so the fatigue cracks could be generated under cyclic loading. The sensors within the sensing sheet that were close to the notch tip successfully detected the initialization of fatigue crack and localized the damage on the plate. The sensors that were away from the crack successfully detected the propagation of fatigue cracks based on the time history of the measured strain. The results of the tests have validated the general principles of the proposed sensing sheets for crack detection and identified advantages and challenges of the two tested designs.

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is the process of continuously or periodically measuring structural parameters and the transformation of the collected data into information on real structural conditions. The centroid of stiffness is a universal parameter and its position in a cross-section can be evaluated for any load-carrying beam structure as the position of the neutral axis under conveniently chosen loads. Thus, a change in the position of the neutral axis within a cross-section can indicate a change in the position of the centroid of stiffness, i.e., unusual structural behaviors. This paper proposes a novel monitoring method based on deterministic and probabilistic determination of the position of the neutral axis under conveniently chosen conditions. Therefore, the method proposed in this paper is potentially applicable to a large variety of beam-like structures. Data from two existing structures were used to validate the method and assess its performance: Streicker Bridge at Princeton University and the US202/NJ23 highway overpass in Wayne, NJ. The results show that the neutral axis location is varying even when damage is not present. Reasons for this variation are determined and the accuracy in the evaluation assessed. This paper concludes that the position of the neutral axis can be evaluated with sufficient accuracy using static and dynamic strain measurements performed on appropriate time-scales and indicates its potential to be used as a damage sensitive feature.