A review of structural health monitoring systems and application for railway bridges

The reliability and durability of railway bridges regularly have to be monitored. Factors such as construction defects, structural deterioration, material degradation, aging, harsh environmental conditions, changing and increasing loading, and extreme events such as natural disasters may contribute to the failure of an infrastructure system to various degrees. Railway bridge structural health monitoring technique is necessary to evaluate bridge structure rather than visual inspection alone, and it may not be adequate. The objective of this paper is to assess the structure of the steel railway bridge. This study presents a critical review of indirect methods for railway bridge monitoring systems. Before installing instrumentations on the bridge, a numerical simulation was performed to have an overview of the crucial location on the bridge due to actions on the existing bridge. This paper provides discussion and recommendations on the challenges to be overcome for successful implementation in practice. This case study may be used by practicing engineers and researchers.