Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
COMPUTERS AND CONCRETE, cilt.18, sa.4, ss.827-852, 2016 (SCI-Expanded)
In this paper, it is aimed to evaluate the structural behavior of box girder bridge model under undamaged and damaged conditions considering time effect between June 2009 and February 2015 using ambient vibration tests. For this purpose, a scaled bridge model is constructed and experimental measurements are performed to determine the damage and time effect on dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios. In the ambient vibration tests, natural excitations are provided and the response of the bridge model is measured. The signals collected from the tests are processed by Operational Modal Analysis; and the dynamic characteristics of the bridge model are estimated using Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition and Stochastic Subspace Identification methods. Measurement time, frequency span and effective mode number are selected by considering similar studies found in the literature. To expose the damage and time effect on dynamic characteristics, four experimental measurement cases are considered between 2009 and 2015. The first measurement case is conducted on June 2009 under undamaged conditions. The second and third measurement cases are performed on October 2010 under undamaged and damaged conditions to emerge the damage and time effect, respectively. The fourth measurement tests are carried out on February 2015 to display the time effect on the dynamic characteristics considering same damage condition in third measurements. At the end of the study, experimentally identified dynamic characteristics are compared with each other to investigate the damage and time effects. It can be stated that the both of Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition and Stochastic Subspace Identification methods are very useful to identify the dynamic characteristics of the bridge model. Maximum differences obtained as 11.98% and 112.24% between Case 1 and Case 2, 10.30% and 26.24% between Case 2 and Case 3, 12.36% and 401.50% between Case 3 and Case 4 for natural frequencies and damping ratios, respectively. It is seen that damages and environmental conditions affect the structural behavior of concrete bridges, substantially. Also, time dependent environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and ageing are as important as cracks and damages.