Ad-hoc vibration monitoring system for a stress-ribbon footbridge: from design to operation

Pedro Gómez Bosque footbridge is a slender and lightweight structure that creates a pedestrian link over the Pisuerga River, Valladolid, Spain. This footbridge is a singular stress ribbon structure with one span of 85 m consisting on a steel plate and precast concrete slabs laying on it. Rubber pavement and a railing made of stainless steel and glass complete the footbridge. Because of its lively dynamics, prone to oscillate, a simple and affordable structural health monitoring system was installed in order to continuously evaluate its structural serviceability and to estimate its modal parameters. Once certain problems (conditioning and 3D orientation of the triaxial accelerometers) are overcome, the monitoring system is validated by comparison with a general purpose laboratory portable analyzer. Representative data is presented, including acceleration magnitudes and modal estimates. The evolution of these parameters has been analysed over one-year time.