A structural health monitoring (SHM) system provides an efficient way to diagnose the condition of critical and largescale structures such as long-span bridges. With the development of SHM techniques, numerous condition assessment and damage diagnosis methods have been developed to monitor the evolution of deterioration and long-term structural performance of such structures, as well as to conduct rapid damage and post-disaster assessments. However, the condition assessment and the damage detection methods described in the literature are usually validated by numerical simulation and/or laboratory testing of small-scale structures with assumed deterioration models and artificial damage, which makes the comparison of different methods invalid and unconvincing to a certain extent. This paper presents a full-scale bridge benchmark problem organized by the Center of Structural Monitoring and Control at the Harbin Institute of Technology. The benchmark bridge structure, the SHM system, the finite element model of the bridge, and the monitored data are presented in detail. Focusing on two critical and vulnerable components of cable-stayed bridges, two benchmark problems are proposed on the basis of the field monitoring data from the full-scale bridge, that is, condition assessment of stay cables (Benchmark Problem 1) and damage detection of bridge girders (Benchmark Problem 2). For Benchmark Problem 1, the monitored cable stresses and the fatigue properties of the deteriorated steel wires and cables are presented. The fatigue life prediction model and the residual fatigue life assessment of the cables are the foci of this problem. For Benchmark Problem 2, several damage patterns were observed for the cable-stayed bridge. The acceleration time histories, together with the environmental conditions during the damage development process of the bridge, are provided. Researchers are encouraged to detect and to localize the damage and the damage development process. All the datasets and detailed descriptions, including the cable stresses, the acceleration datasets, and the finite element model, are available on the Structural Monitoring and Control website (http://smc.hit.edu.cn).

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Cables play an important role in cable-stayed systems, but are vulnerable to corrosion and fatigue damage. There is a dearth of studies on the fatigue damage evolution of corroded cable. In the present study, the acoustic emission (AE) technology is adopted to monitor the fatigue damage evolution process. First, the relationship between stress and strain is determined through a tensile test for corroded and non-corroded steel wires. Results show that the mechanical performance of corroded cables is changed considerably. The AE characteristic parameters for fatigue damage are then established. AE energy cumulative parameters can accurately describe the fatigue damage evolution of corroded cables. The failure modes in each phase as well as the type of acoustic emission source are determined based on the results of scanning electron microscopy. The waveform characteristics, damage types, and frequency distribution of the corroded cable at different damage phases are collected. Finally, the number of broken wires and breakage time of the cables are determined according to the variation in the margin index.