SHM system on Rion-Antirion Bridge Project: Structural Health Monitoring

The Rion-Antirion bridge (Harilaos Trikoupis Bridge) links mainland Greece to Peloponnese at the west side of the Corinthe Gulf near Partas. It is 2.2 km long, supported by 4 diamond shaped pylons.

The environment in which the bridge was constructed combines a number of physical challenges and thus makes this project particularly complex: a strait of about 2,500m width, deep water (up to 65m) combined with deep soil strata of weak alluviums, possibility of strong seismic activity, tectonic movements and adverse high wind actions.

A Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system was specially designed to survey the behavior of the bridge subjected to this difficult environment.

Real-Time and History

Installed in 2004, the monitoring system provides highly reliable and useful information about events occurring on the bridge and the response of the structure.

Real time alerts as well as a database of historical information allows the concessionnaire, Gefyra, to secure the daily service, optimize the periodic maintenance and ultimately assess and extend the design life of the structure.

In particular the SHM system provided:

• Alerts concerning excessive stay cable vibration in 2006, resulting in an upgrade of the structure with cable dampers which reduced the amplitude of vibration by four.
• Verification of the remaining fatigue design life of cable gussets using the historical database of cable loading.
• Optimization of data by using a smart algorithm which record high sampling data file during specific seismic events.