Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network

Farhad Huseynov

BSc, MSc
Home/Farhad Huseynov
Farhad Huseynov 2018-10-31T17:05:34+00:00

Early Stage Researcher
Full Scale Dynamics Ltd (United Kingdom)

Project 7: Bridge condition assessment using rotation measurements

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Research Interests:

Bridge loading; Weigh-in-motion; Structural health monitoring; Finite element modeling; Structural dynamics

Biography:

Farhad Huseynov received his BSc degree in Civil Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey, and MSc (with distinction) degree in Structural Engineering from the University of Sheffield, UK, in 2009 and 2012, respectively. After graduation he worked as a Structural Design Engineer for several industry leading companies and gained an extensive experience specifically in bridge design projects. He has worked on a wide range of projects including but not limited to short- and long-span precast girder, integral, long span continuous bridges design works.

His previous research experience includes Finite Element Modeling of Bosporus Suspension Bridge. He joined TRUSS ITN in November 2015. A summary of his research highlights and training, dissemination and outreach activities in TRUSS  other than network-wide events, is provided in the pdf below, followed by more detailed info on his research outputs.

ESR7_Summary

Research Outputs:

Publications in TRUSS

Journal papers
This paper showcases the importance of field testing in efforts to deal with the deteriorating infrastructure. It shows that when tested, bridges do not necessarily behave as expected under load, particularly with respect to boundary conditions. This is demonstrated via a load test performed on a healthy but ageing composite reinforced concrete bridge in Exeter, UK. The bridge girders were instrumented with strain transducers and static strains were recorded while a four-axle, 32 tonne lorry remained stationary in a single lane. Subsequently, a 3-D finite element model of the bridge was developed and calibrated based on the field test data. The bridge deck was originally designed as simply supported, however, it is shown (from the field test and calibrated model) that the support conditions were no longer behaving as pin-roller which affects the load distribution characteristics of the superstructure. Transverse load distribution factors (DFs) of the bridge deck structure were studied for different boundary conditions. The DFs obtained from analysis were compared with DFs provided in Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Standard Specification. Having observed in the load test that the ends of the deck appeared to be experiencing some rotational restraint, a parametric study was carried out to calculate mid-span bending moment (under DMRB assessment loading) for varying levels of restraint at the end of the deck. [DOI]

Historically the UK has been a pioneer and early adopter of experimental investigation techniques on new and operation structures, a technology that would now be described as Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), yet few of these investigations have been enduring or carried out on the long span or tall structures that feature in flagship SHM applications in the Far East. [DOI] -> Link to full text in academic repository

Conference contributions
This paper presents a case study that reveals useful information to a stakeholder in verifying the condition of its bridge structure. It is demonstrated through a field testing carried out on an abutment of a historical railway bridge that exhibits a vertical crack on its wing wall running through its full height. Although this does not pose danger to normal traffic it was observed that the crack moves under live load and obtaining real behaviour of the crack movement was crucial for the stakeholder to assess the condition of the structure, which is the main focus of this study. This is tackled by monitoring the crack movement on the abutment wing wall using an optical camera system pointing to optical targets attached on the structure. As a result of this study, three-dimensional crack movement under train loading is obtained and the response of the test structure to a train loading is further analysed within the scope if this study.
‘This paper proposes a new axle detection methodology using direct strain measurements. Initially, numerical analyses are carried out on a 1-D simply supported bridge structure to investigate the strain response of a bridge to a 2-axle moving vehicle. The strain response obtained from the numerical model is further studied and a new axle detection strategy, based on the second derivative of strain with respect to time, is proposed. Having developed the theoretical concept, field testing is carried out on a single span simply supported railway bridge to validate the proposed methodology and test its robustness of on a full-scale bridge.
Structural health monitoring has proven to be a useful tool for evaluating the condition of bridges, with permanent monitoring systems installed on long-span bridges forming vital links on the major transport routes. Economic demands often reduce the availability of monitoring systems for the smaller bridges which make up the wider transport network. A short-term monitoring system is designed to be easily and quickly installed and can be adjusted to suit the individual requirements of bridges. These systems are ideal for rural regions where there are a high number of bridges on isolated road and rail networks.

This report will review a study of a single span bridge on a private heritage railway in England under varying loading conditions. The loading conditions were supplied by the passing steam engines, including the Flying Scotsman. The study was designed to measure static and dynamic measurements of the bridge under loading from passing steam trains. Accelerometers were used to determine the rotations and deflections of the bridge deck under loading from the trains. To verify the results, measurements of deflection at mid-span were taken using a video-based measurement system. The results showed that the proposed method provides high accuracy when compared to the video imagery measurements.

This paper reports on recent contributions by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network titled TRUSS (Training in Reducing Uncertainty of Structural Safety) to the field of structural safety in rail and road bridges (http://trussitn.eu). In TRUSS, uncertainty in bridge safety is addressed via cost-efficient structural performance monitoring and fault diagnostics methods including: (1) the use of the rotation response due to the traffic traversing a bridge and weigh-in-motion concepts as damage indicator, (2) the combination of design parameters in probabilistic context for geometrical and material properties, traffic data and assumption on level of deterioration to evaluate bridge safety (via Bayesian updating and a damage indicator based on real time measurement), (3) the application of a fuzzy classification technique via feature selection extracted using empirical mode decomposition to detect failure, and (4) the testing of alternative vibration based damage sensitive features other than modal parameters. Progress has also been made in improving modern technologies based on optical fiber distributed sensing, and sensors mounted on instrumented terrestrial and on aerial vehicles, in order to gather more accurate and efficient info about the structure. More specifically, the following aspects have been covered: (a) the spatial resolution and strain accuracy obtained with optical distributed fiber when applied to concrete elements as well as the ideal adhesive, and the potential for detecting crack or abnormal deflections without failure or debonding, (b) the possibility of using the high-resolution measurement capabilities of the Traffic Speed Deflectometer for bridge monitoring purposes and, (c) the acquisition of bridge details and defects via unmanned aerial vehicles. -> Link to full text in academic repository

Monitoring displacement of in operation bridges is practically challenging but potentially very useful for condition assessment and decision support. The primary difficulties are in finding fixed physical reference points and, for the majority short span bridges under normal operation, the mm-level magnitudes of displacement under normal operating conditions (e.g. standard truck loading). With rare possibility for physical connection between a reference and a bridge, non-contacting technologies such as GPS need to be used. Other options include total station and more exotic technologies of laser interferometer and radar have also been tried. There are drawbacks for each technology related to limited sample rate (for total station) and signal to noise ratio (for GPS) while radar and laser are expensive and require specialist users. With advances in computing power, optics-based systems are becoming popular, relying on a standard lens but with capability to track multiple positions with potential to recover deformation with high spatial resolution. This paper reports the experiences of the authors exploring the suitability of a commercially available optics-based system in terms of spatial and temporal resolution and sampling and in challenging field conditions required for long term monitoring. For example issues such as stability of camera mounting (e.g. in wind) and varying lighting conditions while not problematic in a laboratory govern performance in the field. The paper tracks a sequence of experiments moving from lab to field, ultimately moving up to a field test on a road bridge in Devon. In each case the capabilities and limitations of the system have been critically examined. The study has defined both limitations and capabilities, while defining best approaches for use and at the same time providing some useful performance data on the subject bridges. 
This paper showcases the importance of field testing in efforts to deal with the deteriorating infrastructure. It demonstrates a load test performed on a healthy but aging composite reinforced concrete bridges in Exeter, UK. The bridge girders were instrumented with strain transducers and static strains were recorded while a four-axle, 32 tonne lorry remained stationary in a single lane. The results obtained from the field test were used to calculate transverse load distribution factors (DFs) of the deck structure for each loading case. Additionally, a 3-D finite element model of the bridge was developed and calibrated based on field test data. Similar loading cases were simulated on the analytical model and behaviour of the structure under static loading was studied. It was concluded that the bridge support conditions had changed throughout its service life, which affected the superstructure load distribution characteristics. Finally, DFs obtained from analysis were compared with factors provided in Design Manual for Roads and Bridges Standard Specification for similar type of bridges. -> Link to full text in repository

Selected presentations from TRUSS dissemination events

1st TRUSS Symposium (Portoroz (Slovenia), 21st June 2017)

TRUSS Workshop (Dublin (Ireland), 29th August 2018)