Vibration-based Damage Diagnosis of Lifeline Bridges

B.C. is home to many of the largest bridges in North America, as well as the largest earthquakes in Canada and the world. The ongoing research efforts aim to implement an automated monitoring system that detects and localizes post-earthquake damage on bridges in real-time based on ambient vibrations. The vision is that in the event of an earthquake, the earthquake early warning system would trigger the damage assessment module, which ranks all bridges with respect to the severity of damage sustained, and facilitates both the coordination of immediate bridge closures to avoid further fatalities and subsequent repair measures.

For this purpose, the Department of Civil Engineering at UBC is currently investigating the suitability of one specific method, the so-called Stochastic Subspace Damage-based Localization. However, the leap from a lab experiment to real bridges holds some overwhelming challenges, the solution to which can only be found in a joint effort between experienced civil engineers and mathematicians with a deep understanding of the statistical properties of the damage localization approach, such as the developers at Inria.

The expected outcome of the planned student exchange is to show whether Subspace-based Damage Localization can be used to achieve the vision of an automated monitoring system.

Faculty Supervisor:

Carlos Estuardo Ventura

Student:

Partner:

Inria Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique Research Centre

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Technology; Transportation (excluding aerospace); Sustainability & the Environment

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program: