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News Release
Smart Bridge to be monitored under traffic loading conditions
Rola Idriss, professor of civil engineering, received $100,000 from the New Mexico Department of Transportation for a project to monitor the I-10 over University Avenue Smart Bridge under traffic loading conditions.
The I-10 Bridge is the first Interstate Highway Bridge in the United States to be built with an embedded fiber-optic sensor system. An optical fiber monitoring system was designed and built into one span of the five span high performance pre-stressed concrete Bridge. A total of 72 long-gage deformation sensors, along with 36 thermocouples were embedded in the pre-stressed concrete girders.
Data will be collected under traffic loading using the embedded sensor system and analyzed to evaluate the in service performance of the completed bridge.
Bridge monitoring under service conditions is a valuable means of evaluating an existing bridge. Design assumptions do not always represent the true bridge behavior. Many factors not considered in the design process contribute to the response of a bridge. Field data collected with a built in monitoring system can be analyzed to yield in-situ bridge response to load. It provides the engineer with valuable knowledge of the actual system’s response to service load. This information can be compared to design assumptions and code designs and limits to evaluate the performance of the structure. This will translate into better, more economical and safer designs.
The research has broad application. Some of the long-range impacts of the research are to improve bridge management, increase bridge safety, reliability, functional performance, and security.