| Bridges are critical components of the transportation network that ensure economic prosperity and quality of life. However, they are susceptible to structural damage that may lead to their collapse. Therefore, maintaining safe and reliable structures is paramount. In this context, in the last three decades, structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridges has arisen as a powerful tool to support management and maintenance activities of bridges. The main purpose of a typical SHM system is to provide timely and objective information about the health of a structure as well as warnings regarding any damage that has been detected. However, despite the growing body of research that has been devoted to the subject, this is still a challenge.;In this context, this thesis comprises two main goals. The first is to emphasise the need of using field results together with physics-based behavioural models in order to attain a sound and reliable assessment of the structural condition of the bridge. The second is to propose an alternative data-driven approach for damage detection in bridges. Both objectives are addressed using the quasi-static component of moving-loads responses, which provides a valuable insight as regards the structural behaviour. |
