Dynamic Characteristics of Brunei Bridges for Remote Health Condition Monitoring

This project studies the dynamic characteristics of bridges in Brunei for the purpose of structural condition monitoring and anticipating future maintenance. It combines a numerical model of the bridge, onsite vibration measurement, and a real-time remote monitoring system so that authorised engineers can check a bridge’s condition from anywhere. It was led from IADA in collaboration with Universiti Teknologi Brunei and the University of Warwick.

Aims and objectives

Design and construction of a numerical model of the bridge, so researchers can learn its dynamic properties and analyse the numerical data produced.
Data acquisition of the dynamic properties of a bridge: collecting onsite triaxial movement and vibration measurements, accounting for factors such as moving loads and sea waves, and using the data to develop the bridge’s dynamical model.
Development of a real-time remote-access bridge health monitoring system: transmitting data from the local site to a remote server with local administrative access, analysing it to anticipate maintenance, and giving authorised users remote access to the bridge’s real-time condition.

Stages of the remote bridge health monitoring system, from simulation and onsite measurement to remote authorised access — The stages of the remote bridge health monitoring system: simulation and data-measurement trials, onsite acquisition of big data, transmission to a remote server, and real-time authorised access.

Onsite measurement requires several sensors to acquire good-quality data, so the collected data is large and its analysis is periodic to keep the response close to real time.

Sensing

One of the candidate sensors is a Kistler low-frequency accelerometer, with a sensitivity of about 1984 to 2000 mV/g at 100 Hz and 0.5 g rms. The unit carries an acceleration calibration certificate (calibrated by Kistler, recertified by NIST) and meets ISO 9001:2015, ANSI/NCSL Z540-1-1994 (R2002), and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation through the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board. Once the chosen sensor proves itself in measurement trials, more units are deployed to collect data across the structure.

Low-frequency Kistler accelerometer used for bridge vibration measurement — The low-frequency Kistler accelerometer acquired for the project’s onsite vibration measurements.

Research team

Dr Wahyu Caesarendra, Faculty of Integrated Technologies, UBD (Principal Investigator)
Dr Juliana Zaini, Faculty of Integrated Technologies, UBD (Co-Principal Investigator)
Dr Haji Awg Abdul Ghani Naim, Faculty of Science, UBD (Project Member)
Pg Muhammad Nazri Bin Pg Hj Ahmad, lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Brunei (PhD student in Systems Engineering)
Dr Dina Shona Laila, Senior Assistant Professor, Universiti Teknologi Brunei (external collaborator)
Dr Irwanda Laory, Associate Professor, University of Warwick (external collaborator)
Mr Rafitra Bin Hj Abdul Razak, Assistant Director, Department of Roads (external collaborator)

Publications

Surindra, M. D., Caesarendra, W., Petra, M. I., Prasetyo, T., Putra, S. A., Zaini, J., Glowacz, A., and Naim, A. G. (2023). Vibration-Based Characterization of Underpass Bridge Using Wavelet Packet Decomposition Method. Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (JESTEC), 18(4), 2117-2131. Full text (PDF)

Project details

Started 1 July 2020, duration 24 months. A previous IADA research project.

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