Dynamic Bridge testing for high speed line

An interesting test was recently conducted on a Rail viaduct over the Sesia river in Italy.

The aim of the monitoring was to study the constructive typologies and their details subject to fatigue loading. For this application 8 SOFO sensors with a length of 1 meters were installed to monitor the dynamic response of the bridge when a high speed train across the viaduct.

Data was acquired at 1KHz rate during the passing of several trains at high speeds.

Thanks to the use of the SOFO Dynamic data acquisition system, it is possible to record high-speed events with a strain resolution down to 0.01 microstrain.

The test was performed under the guidance of Prof. DeRoek from the University of Leuven in Belgium, in the framework of a European project on steel structures.