System Identification of a Base-Isolated Bridge by Ambient and Forced Vibration Tests

Sciarapotamo Bridge, located in Reggio Calabria Province, Italy, has been recently retrofitted by replacing its deteriorated concrete bridge deck with a composite steel-concrete deck, and isolating the new deck with eight high damping rubber, and four multidirectional sliding bearings. Full-scale ambient and forced vibration dynamic commissioning tests were performed on the bridge just before the bridge has become operational. Three different output-only system identification methods with ambient vibration measurements were used for modal parameter identification, namely: (1) multiple reference natural excitation technique in conjunction with eigen-system realization algorithm, (2) enhanced frequency domain decomposition, and (3) data driven stochastic subspace identification methods. Modal parameter estimation results using different output-only identification methods were presented and compared within the paper. In addition, relatively higher level forced vibration test data was used for estimating frequency response functions, identifying isolated natural frequencies, and damping ratios of the retrofitted bridge in as-built condition. Estimated damping coefficients under different excitation levels are of great value, showing the total damping in the system at low level ambient and relatively higher level forced vibration tests. Experimentally obtained modal parameters of the bridge set the undamaged benchmark state of the bridge for future potential condition assessment studies