Development of an earthquake damage detection system for bridge structures

After a large scale earthquake, evaluation of damage of highway structures such as bridge structures has great importance to assure the emergency route for rescue and transport of urgent supplies. Currently, the damage evaluation is basically conducted by means of visual inspection by bridge experts, but generally it takes so long time to collect whole damage information in the affected area. Therefore, the authors are developing a new damage evaluation system using advanced sensors, which can detect the damage level of structures more correctly and quickly just after the earthquake. This paper presents the proposed Seismic Damage Evaluation System for Bridge Structures and the effectiveness of proposed damage evaluation method is demonstrated through a series of shaking table tests. Also, the integration of proposed system to the SATURN system, which is practically used in Japan as a seismic damage information system, is discussed.