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Applied Sciences
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Structural Health Monitoring in Bridges and Infrastructure
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Structural Health Monitoring in Bridges and Infrastructure

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Civil Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 5923

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yang Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing Univerity, Chongqing, China
Interests: bridge and structure inspection and reinforcement; structural health monitoring; structural vibration; seismic evaluation for structure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yang Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Interests: fair-faced concrete; civil engineering construction; application of building information model; construction industrialization; green construction theory and practice
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Lijun Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Interests: structural health monitoring; structural damage detection; structural dynamic load identification; machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The safety and durability of bridges and other infrastructures have always been the focus of scholars and engineers. Structural health monitoring is important to ensure the safety and durability of bridges and other infrastructures. Significant advances in sensing technology, communication levels, and intelligent algorithms have driven the widespread application of structural health monitoring systems in these infrastructures. Based on the various structural responses obtained by sensing technology, the safety performance of the structure is evaluated through analysis of monitoring data and inversion of structure information. In addition, structural loads are important information for structural health monitoring, but not all loads are known or measurable. The acquisition of structural response is the basis for structural health monitoring, but only part of the structural responses can be obtained. Therefore, structural load identification and structural response reconstruction are important parts of structural health monitoring. In particular, artificial intelligence and machine learning have recently opened up new application opportunities for structural health monitoring, which attempt to establish complex mapping relationships between monitored data and structural properties and develop intelligent diagnoses of structures in a data-driven manner.

In this Special Issue, we invite worldwide researchers to publish their original works highlighting the state-of-the-art application of structural health monitoring in bridges and other infrastructures.

Prof. Dr. Yang Yang
Dr. Yang Yang
Dr. Lijun Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • structural health monitoring
  • structural damage identification
  • structural response reconstruction
  • structural load identification
  • structural diagnosis
  • machine learning
  • intelligent algorithms
  • bridge/ infrastructure

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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28 pages, 10890 KiB  
Article
Optimization of Reasonable Finished State for Cable-Stayed Bridge with Steel Box Girder Based on Multiplier Path Following Method
by Jiapeng Shi, Yu Tao, Qingyun Xu, Jie Dai, Jin Di and Fengjiang Qin
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(2), 937; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15020937 - 18 Jan 2025
Viewed by 771
Abstract
The increasing use of cable-stayed bridges with steel box girders necessitates more sophisticated design approaches, as the diverse environments of bridge locations place higher demands on the design process. Determining a reasonable finished state is a critical aspect of bridge design, yet the [...] Read more.
The increasing use of cable-stayed bridges with steel box girders necessitates more sophisticated design approaches, as the diverse environments of bridge locations place higher demands on the design process. Determining a reasonable finished state is a critical aspect of bridge design, yet the current methods are significantly constrained. A new approach to optimizing the finished state is proposed. This method’s practicality and efficiency are verified through a case study, analyzing how constraints on vertical girder deflection, horizontal pylon displacement, cable forces, and cable force uniformity affect the optimization outcome. The results show that convergence of the mixed-constraint quadratic programming model is achieved within 30 iterations, yielding an optimized finished state that meets the design criteria. The chosen constraint ranges are deemed appropriate, and the optimization method for the construction stage is thus demonstrably feasible and efficient. The multiplier path following optimization algorithm is computationally efficient, exhibiting good convergence and insensitivity to the problem size. Being easy to program, it avoids the arbitrariness of manual cable adjustment, enabling straightforward determination of a reasonable finished state for the cable-stayed bridge with a steel box girder. The vertical displacement of the main girder, the positive and negative bending moments, and the normal stresses at the top and bottom edges, as well as the positive and negative bending moments in the towers, are significantly influenced by the constraint ranges. The horizontal displacement of the pylon roof is significantly affected by the constraint ranges of both the main girder’s vertical displacement and the pylon’s horizontal displacement, while the remaining constraint ranges have a limited impact. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring in Bridges and Infrastructure)
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26 pages, 17024 KiB  
Article
Optimization on Reasonable Construction State for Cable-Stayed Bridge with Steel Box Girder Based on Multi-Objective Programming Algorithm
by Junbiao He, Wenhao Chai, Weiming Hu, Jie Dai, Jin Di and Fengjiang Qin
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(1), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15010091 - 26 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1046
Abstract
The reasonable construction state of a cable-stayed bridge refers to the state achieved after construction is carried out according to a specific sequence of procedures, leading to the reasonable completion status the bridge. The corresponding construction states at each stage are considered as [...] Read more.
The reasonable construction state of a cable-stayed bridge refers to the state achieved after construction is carried out according to a specific sequence of procedures, leading to the reasonable completion status the bridge. The corresponding construction states at each stage are considered as part of the reasonable construction state. For the optimization of the construction state of cable-stayed bridges with steel box girders, a method combining a multi-objective programming algorithm with a forward iteration method is proposed to determine a reasonable construction state based on the structural characteristics and optimization principles of such bridges. First, a multi-objective programming model was established, taking the bending moments of the main girder and pylon, as well as cable forces, as objective functions. The weighted square sum method, a type of evaluation function method, was then employed to convert the multi-objective programming model into an unconstrained single-objective quadratic programming model. Subsequently, the damped Newton method was utilized to solve the quadratic programming problem. By integrating this algorithm with the forward iteration method, the reasonable construction state of a large-span and double-tower steel box girder cable-stayed bridge was optimized. The influence of different objective functions on the optimization results was analyzed. The findings demonstrate that the proposed method produces a smooth structural configuration under the optimized construction state, with internal forces and normal stresses within a reasonable range. In the completed state derived from this construction state, internal forces, normal stresses, and cable forces are uniformly distributed, while the reactions at transition piers and auxiliary piers exhibit sufficient pressure reserves. The structural state under dead load achieved through this method closely aligns with the desired reasonable completed state. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring in Bridges and Infrastructure)
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25 pages, 7806 KiB  
Article
Transfer Reconstruction from High-Frequency to Low-Frequency Bridge Responses Under Vehicular Loading with a ResNet
by Xuzhao Lu, Chenxi Wei, Limin Sun, Ye Xia and Wei Zhang
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(23), 10927; https://doi.org/10.3390/app142310927 - 25 Nov 2024
Viewed by 798
Abstract
The reconstruction of bridge responses has been a significant area of focus within the field of structural health monitoring. This process entails the cross-reconstruction of responses from various cross-sections to identify any anomalies at specific locations, which may indicate the presence of structural [...] Read more.
The reconstruction of bridge responses has been a significant area of focus within the field of structural health monitoring. This process entails the cross-reconstruction of responses from various cross-sections to identify any anomalies at specific locations, which may indicate the presence of structural defects. Traditional research has concentrated on simulating the relationships between different cross-sections for both high- and low-frequency components in isolation. However, this study introduces an innovative approach using a residual network (ResNet) to reconstruct high-frequency bridge responses under vehicular loading and demonstrates its applicability to low-frequency response reconstruction as well. The theoretical basis of this method is established through an analysis of the dynamics within a simplified vehicle-bridge-interaction (VBI) system. This analysis reveals that the transfer matrices for both high- and low-frequency components remain consistent across various loading conditions. Then, a data interception technique is introduced to separate high-frequency, low-frequency, and temperature-related components based on their spectral characteristics. The ResNet modeled the inter-sectional relationships of the high-frequency components and was then used to reconstruct the low-frequency responses under vehicular loading. The methodology was validated using a series of finite element models, confirming the uniformity of the transfer matrix between high- and low-frequency vibration components of the bridge. Field testing was also conducted to evaluate the practical effectiveness of the method. The proposed transfer–reconstruction method is expected to significantly reduce training dataset requirements compared with existing methods, thereby enhancing the efficiency of structural health monitoring systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring in Bridges and Infrastructure)
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16 pages, 8731 KiB  
Article
Combined Identification of Vehicle Parameters and Road Surface Roughness Using Vehicle Responses
by Lexuan Liu, Xiurui Guo, Xinyu Yang and Lijun Liu
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(22), 10310; https://doi.org/10.3390/app142210310 - 9 Nov 2024
Viewed by 942
Abstract
Highways, urban roads, and bridges are the important transportation infrastructures for the economic development of modern society. The evaluation of bridge and road quality is crucial to the maintenance and management of the bridge and road industry. Road roughness is a widely accepted [...] Read more.
Highways, urban roads, and bridges are the important transportation infrastructures for the economic development of modern society. The evaluation of bridge and road quality is crucial to the maintenance and management of the bridge and road industry. Road roughness is a widely accepted indicator in the evaluation of road quality and safety, which is a major input source for vehicles. The vehicle responses-based method of identifying road roughness is efficient and convenient. However, the dynamic characteristics of the vehicle have an important impact on the interaction between the vehicle and the road. When the vehicle parameters are not yet clear, the coupling of unknown parameters and unknown road roughness results in the need for mutual iteration when the existing methods simultaneously identify vehicle parameters and road roughness. To address this issue, this study proposes an effective method for the combined identification of vehicle parameters and road roughness using vehicle responses. The test vehicle is modeled as a four-degree-of-freedom half-vehicle model. In view of the coupling effect between tire stiffness and road roughness, the unknown vehicle physical parameters, except for tire stiffness, are first included in the extended state vector. Based on the extended Kalman filter for unknown excitation (EKF-UI), unknown vehicle physical parameters and unknown forces on the axle are identified. Subsequently, based on the property that the front and rear axles of the vehicle pass through the same road roughness area at a fixed time lag, the tire stiffness is identified by combining the identified unknown forces on the axle. Finally, the road roughness is obtained using the identified vehicle parameters and unknown forces. Numerical studies with different levels of roughness, different noise levels, and different vehicle speeds have verified the accuracy of this method in identifying vehicle parameters and road roughness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring in Bridges and Infrastructure)
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Review

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20 pages, 6121 KiB  
Review
Development and Application of Digital Twin Technique in Steel Structures
by Linze Shi, Yong Ding and Bin Cheng
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(24), 11685; https://doi.org/10.3390/app142411685 - 14 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1247
Abstract
Steel structures face significant challenges in long-term maintenance because of complex and unstable service environments. Fortunately, the digital twin technique offers an excellent solution by creating a digital model and continuously updating it with real-time monitoring data. To determine the development and application [...] Read more.
Steel structures face significant challenges in long-term maintenance because of complex and unstable service environments. Fortunately, the digital twin technique offers an excellent solution by creating a digital model and continuously updating it with real-time monitoring data. To determine the development and application status of the digital twin technique in steel structures, a review drawn on the latest literature from the past fifteen years was conducted. The bibliometric analysis and innovation discussion of these studies primarily focused on publication details, keyword information, and application specifics. Additionally, significant attention was given to the evolution of digital twin definitions, modeling methodologies, and application fields. The analysis results indicate that the digital twin technique in steel structures has made significant advancements in both its definition and modeling methodologies, thanks to worldwide contributions. Meanwhile, this technique also demonstrates advantages in the applications of material deformation, structural monitoring, infrastructure maintenance, and fatigue assessment. Based on this review of the existing literature, the future development of the digital twin technique in steel structures should focus on model innovation, application expansion, and performance optimization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Health Monitoring in Bridges and Infrastructure)
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