Data Acquisition for a Bridge Collapse Test

Abstract

Researchers at the Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory successfully collapsed a 120-foot bridge with an intentionally fractured girder to study behavior and safety. It required three rounds of testing before the damaged bridge finally failed under an applied load of more than 360,000 pounds. The bridge, tested to determine its vulnerability to collapse following the fracture of a girder, withstood about 4.5 times the maximum legal truck load. Nearly 300 strain gauges and displacement transducers as well as recorded how the bridge reacted in this extremely damaged condition to incrementally increasing loads during the two rounds of testing. Wireless data acquisition modules were used to monitor the condition of cranes used to apply loads. This presentation is an overview of the methodology used to determine whether or not this design is fracture critical as is commonly assumed.