Kistler offers complete solutions and services for Structural Health Monitoring of bridges to protect these infrastructures.

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM & WIM)

Protecting sensitive infrastructure. Extending service life.

Bridges are the backbone of the economy in every country. These essential elements of traffic infrastructure typically consist of steel, cast iron, or prestressed concrete - and nowadays many of them are aging. Determining a bridge’s condition solely by inspecting the structure from the outside is challenging. Fortunately, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) combined with Weigh In Motion (WIM) provides now bridge operators with accurate data on structural behavior and traffic loads. This approach allows for a thorough assessment of the overall bridge performance using site-specific information, enabling targeted interventions to enhance bridge condition, extend service life, and ensure structural safety.

SHM & WIM enhances bridge safety by delivering these key benefits:

Extension of remaining bridge service life

Damage detection at an early stage

Traffic load monitoring and detection of overloaded vehicles

The easy way to monitor and protect your infrastructure: solutions by Kistler – from sensor to data

Backed by over 50 years of measurement technology experience, Kistler supplies unique monitoring solutions for bridges of all types – solutions that ensure seamless availability of highly reliable bridge structural data (SHM) in combination with traffic load data (WIM).

Our complete solution provides a precise determination of several physical quantities related to the structural behavior of the bridge, in combination with traffic loading information and environmental conditions.

Actions

Traffic loads
Gravity forces
Wind loads
Seismic forces

Structural responses

Acceleration
Strain
Displacement
Inclination

Degradation

Corrosion
Cracking
Losses in stiffness or strength

Environmental effects

Temperature
Humidity
Rainfall

Full data availability with Kistler’s SHM & WIM cloud software platform

Our SHM software is a comprehensive cloud-based platform that offers you a wide range of functionalities to continuously monitor and visualize key parameters related to the bridge’s structure and to passing traffic, to receive specific notifications or alarms, and to set specific configurations and settings.

Main benefits of our SHM & WIM software solution

Main SHM & WIM software functionalities

Kistler supports users with services throughout all project phases

Kistler provides a wide range of services that ensure optimal support for users in all phases of the project, and throughout the entire operation and service lifespan of our complete solution. Kistler offers you flexibility: you can source the services you require according to your specific project, your requirements, and your own expertise.

Kistler’s SHM & WIM solution to protect infrastructure and ensure traffic safety

Bridge structures have limited service lifetimes – and they face growing challenges due to natural aging as well as major increases in traffic density and loading. Holistic solutions from Kistler take account of all relevant parameters to ensure effective protection for infrastructure. At the same time as monitoring the bridge’s structure, our technology measures effective traffic loading from all vehicles passing over it on a 24/7 basis. Furthermore, any vehicle violating the legal limits for gross vehicle weight, axle weight and speed can be identified and automatically penalized.

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Putting monitoring solutions into practice – with Kistler

Structural Health Monitoring of bridges: more than a 100 of our K-Beam accelerometers are installed at the Runyang bridge.

Runyang Yangtze River Bridge (China)

A long-term monitoring program of the Runyang suspension bridge in China incorporates Kistler low-frequency K-Beam accelerometers to assess dynamic behavior of main cables, suspenders, girders, and towers. With over 100 accelerometers distributed along the 1,490 m long main span, this program provides continuous data for dynamic characterization, ensuring bridge functionality and mitigating the risk of sudden failures or catastrophic events, due to extreme wind loads.

Professor Zhijun Li from Civil Engineering College of Nanjing Tech University quotes “As the super long span bridge, the Runyang has a very lower frequency. After several comparisons with other sensors, the Kistler K-Beam was used in the Runyang SHM system. I analyzed the first three years and got ideal results. It is a very successful project in China”.