NIPE - Center of Bridges and Structures Inspection

BRIDGES & TUNNELS

Structural Monitoring

To ensure the structural safety of bridges and tunnels, structural  monitoring plays an important role. DEE has participated in the  structural monitoring since 1990’s for Macau government. Together  with visual inspection, routine monitoring campaigns will be  carried out to obtain monitoring data particularly on those critical  monitoring points. Inclination, joint variation, and settlement  are the most common monitoring items. Recently, cable force  monitoring by measuring the cable vibration frequency has been  introduced to bridge monitoring. DEE is also  planning to introduce more advance monitoring items and systems  such as the automatic structural monitoring system and the dynamic  behavior evaluation of bridges. More viaducts will be planned  for monitoring in the coming future with automatic structural  monitoring system. Recently, DEE starts the inspection of the  bridge underdeck by using bridge inspection platform car. It will  become a routine and important inspection service item provided  by DEE in the coming future. Moreover, 3D Laser Scanning  will be adopted more and more in the field of bridge and tunnel  monitoring in which millions of measurement (point cloud) allow  more complete and accurate measurement of the movement or  deformation. 

Structural Loading Tests

To evaluate the structural condition and loading capacity of an  existing bridge, loading test is an essential and effective way to  obtain valuable scientifi c data of the bridge structures. Numerical  model could be established with advanced structural software to  simulate the actual behavior of the structure. However, to ensure  that the numerical model reflecting the actual behavior of the  structures, load test could be adopted to verify or calibrate the  model by comparing with the structural response data such as the  deflection, stress/strain and vibration frequency. DEE performed  bridge loading test in 2008 for the bridge Ponte Nobre de Carvalho,  and will plan to perform this type of test on other bridges in Macau.