A preliminary investigation of the inverse Finite Element Method applied to bridge structures

Monitoring bridge deflections poses significant challenges due to the impracticality of establishing a stable reference point for displacement sensors. Recently, the inverse Finite Element Method (iFEM) has emerged as an effective solution to estimate deflections without a fixed reference for the sensors. The iFEM computes deflections from strain measurement, independently of the bridge material and applied loads. However, its application in civil engineering has been limited. This study employs iFEM to monitor deflections on a concrete box girder bridge equipped with distributed fiber optic sensors. By means of static tests involving calibrated trucks loads, this research preliminary demonstrates deflections caused by trucks can be tracked with iFEM in a real application scenario.