To address the costs associated with bridge health monitoring, especially those directly related to bridge condition assessment, the Ohio Department of Transportation contracted the University of Cincinnati Infrastructure Institute (UCII) to develop and test more efficient means of diagnosing and monitoring their bridges. UCII has developed a bridge condition assessment scheme which calibrates finite element (FE) models of a bridge structure based on the results of diagnostic field tests of the bridge in the form of vibrational mode testing, in some cases combined with truck load testing, in order to determine a load rating for the bridge. UCII researchers have designed an automated calibration method for these FE models. Most of research outlined in this thesis was performed in parallel with the development of the automated calibration method and served as an independent check of both the manual and automated calibration techniques. This thesis will show that, in general, the automated calibration process is a very efficient means of generating accurate FE representation of the bridges, and will suggest some potential areas of further refinement.
In addition, the final chapter of this thesis will explore some issues related to the health monitoring of cable-stayed bridges, in particular the potential for interaction between deck and stay cable vibrations. Experimental data suggests that at certain frequencies, the bridge superstructure interacts strongly with individual cables. The chapter will describe a method of using FE models of the bridge and of the cables to predict bridge locations and cables likely to experience such interactions and suggest areas of potential further study regarding this phenomenon.