SPIE Conference on Smart Structures and Materials , 5-6.03.

1997, San Diego, USA

Railway bridge monitoring during construction and sliding

Daniele Inaudi 1,2, Nicoletta Casanova 1,2,3, Pascal Kronenberg 1, Samuel Vurpillot 1

1
IMAC - Stress Analysis Laboratory
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering
CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

2
SMARTEC SA
via al Molino 6
CH-6916 Grancia, Switzerland

3
IMM SA
via al Molino 6
CH-6916 Grancia, Switzerland

1. ABSTRACT

The Moesa railway bridge is a composite steel concrete bridge on three spans of 30 m each. The 50 cm thick concrete deck is
supported on the lower flanges of two continuous, 2.7 m high I-beams. The bridge has been constructed alongside an old
metallic bridge. After demolishing this one, the new bridge has been slid for 5 m by 4 hydraulic jacks and positioned on the
refurbished piles of the old bridge.
About 30 fiber optic, low-coherence deformation sensors were imbedded in the concrete deck to monitor its deformations
during concrete setting and shrinkage, as well as during the bridge sliding phase. In the days following concrete pour it was
possible to follow its thermal expansion due to the exothermic setting reaction and the following thermal and drying
shrinkage. The deformations induced by the additional load produced by the successive concreting phases were also
observed.
During the bridge push, which extended over six hours, the embedded and surface mounted sensors allowed the monitoring
of the curvature variations in the horizontal plane due to the slightly uneven progression of the jacks. Excessive curvature
and the resulting cracking of concrete could be ruled out by these measurements. It was also possible to observe the bridge
elongation under the heating action of the sun.

Keywords: Deformation sensor, Strain sensor, Bridge monitoring, Fiber optic sensors.

2. INTRODUCTION: BRIDGE DESCRIPION

The Moesa railway bridges span the Moesa river near Bellinzona, in southern Switzerland. These bridges are part of the
Gotthard railway line, one of the most important north-south communication axes across the Alps. The original twin bridges
were steel-truss bridges on three spans. One of the bridges was built in 1894 and required replacement in order to comply
with the steadily increasing load requirements along this line. The need to maintain an almost continuous railway traffic made
it necessary to build the new bridge superstructure alongside to the old bridge. The final construction phase consisted in
sliding the new bridge laterally, in a few hours, over the refurbished piles of the old bridge and into its final position. To this
purpose, four hydraulic jacks were installed on the piles and abutments. After installing the rail lines, the new bridge was
rapidly put in service.
SPIE Conference on Smart Structures and Materials , 5-6.03.1997, San Diego, USA

Figure 1 Transversal cross-section and view of the Moesa railway bridge.

Figure 2 Last concrete pour. The Two supporting steel I beams are clearly visible.

The new Moesa railway bridge is a steel-concrete composite structure (see Figure 1). It is constituted from two continuous
steel I-beams, 89.3 m long and supported on two central piles and two abutments. The I-beams are connected by transversal
steel beams embedded in the 53 cm thick concrete deck. The concrete deck was cast in place (see Figure 2) using a sliding
formwork supported by the two I-beams. The deck was concreted in eight successive phases. No pre-stressing was applied
to the bridge. The complete work on site lasted only eight months.
SPIE Conference on Smart Structures and Materials , 5-6.03.1997, San Diego, USA

3. FIBER OPTIC SENSOR INSTRUMENTATION

Because of the large mass of concrete used to build this bridge and the presence of the steel beams partially hindering the
concrete shrinkage, it was important to verify that the concrete deck would not suffer from cracking during shrinkage and
bridge push. It was therefore decided to install a number of fiber optic deformation sensors in the concrete deck.
The SOFO system [1] is based on low-coherence interferometry and allows the measurement of deformations with a
resolution of a few microns over measurement bases between 0.2 and 40 m. These performances can be guaranteed in the
long term, too. The SOFO sensors [2] (manufactured by DIAMOND / SMARTEC) can be embedded into concrete during
construction or surface mounted on existing structures. The reading unit (manufactured by SMARTEC) is portable,
waterproof and battery powered, making it ideal for field applications. This system has already been installed successfully in
a number or highway and road bridges in Switzerland [3,4,5].
To monitor the Moesa bridge during its construction and during the final sliding phase, it was decided to install two to four

Figure 3 One of the connection boxes installed under the bridge. The connection panel supporting the mating
adapters was still to be installed.

sensors in each of the eight concrete pourings. The sensors had active length between 2 and 4 meters, were placed parallel to
the bridge length and held to the reinforcement bars. Connection boxes were installed under the bridge and allowed the
connection of the sensors with the portable reading unit (see Figure 3). The measurements were conducted regularly after
each concreting and during the bridge push.
SPIE Conference on Smart Structures and Materials , 5-6.03.1997, San Diego, USA

4. RESULTS

4.1 Concrete shrinkage

The thermal expansion and the successive shrinkage of the concrete deck were measured for each of the sections. Figure 4
shows a typical result obtained on the first concreting section by a 4 m long SOFO sensor. The initial expansion phase is
very small (about 0.04 mm) and is followed by a shrinkage of about 0.7 mm corresponding to a deformation of 0.175‰. The
jump observable at the 15 of February corresponds the elongation produced by the additional weight of the concrete used in

1.000

0.900

0.800

0.700

0.600
Shrinkage [mm]

0.500

0.400

0.300

0.200

0.100

0.000

-0.100
05.02.96 10.02.96 15.02.96 20.02.96 25.02.96 01.03.96 06.03.96 11.03.96 16.03.96 21.03.96 26.03.96
Time [date]

Figure 4 Shrinkage of the first concrete section measured by a 4 m long SOFO sensor. The jump at the 15 of
February corresponds to the concreting of the second section.

the second section. The total shrinkage is difficult to estimate from these measurements since is superposed with the
thermally induced length variations due to the spring’s temperature increase. These shrinkage curves are well compatible
with the type of concrete used. No cracks could be observed with the fiber sensors (appearing as sudden increase in the
deformations) nor visually.
All the sensors could be installed rapidly in the re-bar cage before concreting without any delay to the building yard
schedule. About 90% of the installed sensors survived installation and concreting. Because of the very dusty environment,
the connectors needed frequent cleaning. The integrated dust cap of the DIAMOND E2000 connectors used in this
experiment proved to be well adapted to this type of application avoiding any mechanical damage to the ferule, a good
protection against dust and a rapid mating with the patch-cords used to connect the sensors to the reading unit.
SPIE Conference on Smart Structures and Materials , 5-6.03.1997, San Diego, USA

4.2 Bridge sliding

During the bridge push, which extended over six hours, the embedded and a few additional surface mounted sensors
monitored the curvature variations in the horizontal plane due to the slightly uneven progression of the jacks. Figure 5
shows the results obtained by two 2 m long sensors placed parallel to the bridge length, at the position of the second pile
and placed on the left and on the right of the bridge, respectively. Interestingly, most deformations are symmetrical on the
two sensors indicating a simple bending of the bridge.

0.14

0.12

0.1
Deformation [mm]

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02 Left Sensor

0 Right Sensor

-0.02

-0.04
09:07 09:36 10:04 10:33 11:02 11:31 12:00 12:28 12:57 13:26 13:55 14:24

Time [hh:mm]

Jack Jack
Jack Jack

Left Sensor

Right Sensor

Abutement Pile Pile Abutement

Figure 5 (a) Measured deformations at the left and at the right side of the bridge on top of the second pile (and
jack) during the bridge sliding. (b) Sensor situation.
SPIE Conference on Smart Structures and Materials , 5-6.03.1997, San Diego, USA

0.12

0.1

0.08
Mean Elongation [mm]

0.06

0.04 Final
longitudinal
allignment
0.02

-0.02
09:07 09:36 10:04 10:33 11:02 11:31 12:00 12:28 12:57 13:26 13:55 14:24

Time [hh:mm]

(a)

0.0030

0.0020

0.0010
Bending [10 -6 /m]

0.0000

Push 7

-0.0010
Push 6
Final
Longitudinal
-0.0020
Push 1 Allignment
Push 3 Push 5
Push 2
Push 4
-0.0030
09:07 09:36 10:04 10:33 11:02 11:31 12:00 12:28 12:57 13:26 13:55 14:24

Time [hh:mm]

(b)
Figure 6 Mean elongation and bending during bridge sliding.
SPIE Conference on Smart Structures and Materials , 5-6.03.1997, San Diego, USA

Figure 6a shows the elongation of the bridge, obtained by averaging the left and right sensors. The elongation is mainly due
to the heating action of the sun on the bridge. The jump indicated by the arrow corresponds to the final longitudinal
alignment of the bridge.
Figure 6b shows the bridge bending, obtained by subtracting the two values of Figure 5 and dividing by the sensor's length
and by their distance. The bending is largely due to the uneven progression of the four jacks. The different pushing phases
are clearly recognizable (as well as the lunch brake) by the corresponding negative peaks in the bending curve. After each
push phase the bridge was re-aligned by operating the jacks separately. The slight increase of the mean bending during the
day is probably due to the direct sunshine on one of the sides of the bridge. The bending values were about three to five
times smaller than the ones required to produce a permanent cracking. The fiber optic sensors confirmed therefore that the
bridge push was realized without damage to the concrete deck.
Thanks to the immunity of fiber optic sensors to electromagnetic disturbance and their non-conductive nature,
1
measurements were possible even after the railway line was put into service. Even possible leaky currents do not damage
the sensors nor influence the readings.

5. CONCLUSIONS

This experiment shows that long gage-length fiber optic deformation sensors can be successfully embedded in the concrete
deck of a composite bridge. Thanks to these sensors it was possible to analyze the concrete shrinkage and rule out any
cracking problem. During the sliding of the bridge to its final position it was possible to monitor the bridge’s main elongation
and local bending and ensure that no damage occurred to the bridge because of the slightly uneven progression of the four
jacks. These measurements show that even with only two sensors it is possible to obtain a lot of information about the
behavior of the structure under test. A railway bridge is a good example of structure that benefits from the dielectric nature of
fiber optic sensors and from their insensitivity to electromagnetic fields.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are indebted to Prof. L. Pflug, M. Pedretti, R. Passera, P. Colombo, S. Bassi, R. Spataro, S. Marazzi, R. Iten, V.
Kalas, H. Uboldi, F. Guinzani, F. Volpi, Mr. Gaiaschi, Mr. Wiederkehr and the whole IMAC, DIAMOND and IMM teams for
their help and useful discussion. Part of the sensor used in this experiment were provided by DIAMOND SA (Losone,
Switzerland). The authors are indebted to IMM SA (Grancia, Switzerland) for its financial support to this experiment. The
SOFO research program is conducted under the financial support of the Swiss CTI (Commission pour la Technologie et
l’Innovation) and of the Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology.

7. REFERENCES

For further information on the SOFO project look at the following WWW home page: http://imacwww.epfl.ch

[1] "Low-coherence interferometry for the monitoring of underground works", D. Inaudi, L. Vulliet, L. Pflug, S. Vurpillot, A.
Wyser, 1995 North American Conference on Smart Structures and Materials, San Diego February 1995, Volume 2444, 171-178
[2] “Embedded and surface mounted sensor for civil structural monitoring”, D. Inaudi, N. Casanova, P. Kronenberg, S.
Marazzi, S. Vurpillot, Smart Structures and materials, “Industrial and commercial Applications of Smart Structures
Technology”, San Diego, March 1997
[3] “Bridge monitoring by fiber optic deformation sensors: design, emplacement and results”, S. Vurpillot, D. Inaudi, J.-M.
Ducret, Smart Structures and materials, San Diego February 1996, SPIE Volume 2719-16.
[4]"Bridge Monitoring by Interferometric Deformation Sensors", D. Inaudi, S. Vurpillot, N. Casanova, Laser Optoelectronics
and Microphotonics: Fiber Optics Sensors, SPIE, Beijing November 1996
[5] “Bridge Spatial Displacement Monitoring with 100 Fiber Optic Deformation Sensors”, P. Kronenberg, N. Casanova, D.
Inaudi, S. Vurpillot, Smart Structures and Materials, “Smart systems for bridges, structures and highways”, San Diego 97.

1
Most railway lines in Europe are electrically powered.