Thesis title: Advanced methodologies of damage identification in railways viaducts and bridges: geometric reconstruction and load identification
The increasing demand for structural monitoring of highway viaducts and bridges necessitates new advanced methodologies.This dissertation presents a new contribution on the themes of geometric reconstruction and load identification integrating these two aspects to enhance bridge assessment.
First, an inverse identification method based on a bending-torsional coupled beam model and Differential Evolution is proposed to estimate vehicular loads from dynamic responses. This approach enables the identification of load magnitude, inter-axle distances, and eccentricity also under noisy conditions.
Secondly, during the visiting period scheduled by the National Operative Ph.D. Program at the company Breng s.r.l., a structured workflow has been developed to convert photographic and laser surveys into high-fidelity geometric meshes for structural analysis. By pursuing accuracy and interoperability, this method overcomes limitations in data transfer across software platforms. Experimental case studies validate its effectiveness, with considerations for retopologization and Building Information Modeling integration.
Together, these methodologies can improve the accuracy and reliability of bridge monitoring, contributing to safer and more efficient infrastructure management.