Structural health monitoring of the Colle Isarco Viaduct

Abstract

This paper presents a monitoring system, partially installed on the Colle Isarco Viaduct, and a finite element model used to explain past behaviour and predict future behaviour. The whole monitoring system consists of: a topographic network to measure displacements, thermocouples to detect temperature, fibre optic sensors to measure strains, and, lastly, load cells to check the tension magnitude in new post-tensioning cables. The use of such a monitoring system leads to have a complete history of deflections, providing all the necessary data for an accurate interpretation of results. Furthermore, a finite element model, based on an energetic formulation for linear viscoelastic problems, is adopted to reproduce the observed time profile and, mainly, to predict the future behaviour.