Structural evaluation of urban bridges in Amsterdam through InSAR-based displacement data

Valentina Macchiarulo, Hao Kuai, Pantelis Karamitopoulos, Pietro Milillo, Giorgia Giardina

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articleScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Thousands of bridges worldwide face growing risks due to aging materials, increased traffic loads, and climate change-induced weather extremes. Managing these assets is financially demanding, and requires prioritisation strategies for interventions. Consequently, innovative approaches are urgently required to evaluate the structural conditions of these bridges continuously and regularly. Recent advancements in space-borne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technology offer cost-effective remote monitoring capabilities, ensuring extensive coverage and high spatial resolution. Multi Temporal (MT) InSAR techniques enable the reconstruction of millimetre-scale deformation measurements for a large number of assets, opening opportunities for long-term regional-scale monitoring of bridge deformations. However, a major challenge in utilising MT-InSAR-based displacement data operationally is that MT-InSAR analysis reconstructs only the projection of displacements along the satellite Line of Sight (LOS) direction. Due to the typical availability of only two satellite viewing geometries, in most cases the three-dimensional displacement field cannot be fully reconstructed. Consequently, without accounting for the anticipated motion of a given structure and its alignment with respect to the satellite flight path, the actual asset movement is likely to be underestimated, leading to erroneous interpretation. In this paper, we propose a method using the bridge typologies and their associated likely failure mechanisms to derive assumptions regarding expected displacement directions. Then, the information on bridge alignments with respect to the satellite flight direction is used to assess the MT-InSAR sensitivity to the expected displacement directions and define ad-hoc damage indicators. We tested the proposed method on urban bridges in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, using deformation measurements derived from TerraSAR-X data spanning 2016 to 2020. Findings have potential to enhance current procedures for the structural evaluation of bridges.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-8
Number of pages8
Journale-Journal of Nondestructive Testing
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event11th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring - Potsdam, Germany
Duration: 10 Jun 202413 Jun 2024
https://ewshm2024.com/frontend/index.php

Keywords

  • infrastructure
  • MT-InSAR
  • remote sensing
  • structural monitoring
  • damage indicators

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