Possibility of bridge inspection through drive-by vehicles

Based on virtual simulations of vehicle-bridge interactions, the
possibility of detecting stiffness reduction damages in bridges through
vehicle responses has been tested in two dimensional (2D) and three
dimensional (3D) settings. Short Time Fourier Transformation (STFT) has
been used to process the acceleration data of vehicles. The energy band
variation was found strongly related to damage parameters. More important,
initial entering conditions of vehicles are critical in obtaining vehicle
responses through the vehicle bridge interaction models. Through different
levels of road profile roughness, the offset distance needed before
executing the vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) modeling is obtained.