PSI - Issue 84

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 84 (2026) 552–559

© 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Conference Keywords: Bridge; Continuous Monitoring; Deflection Estimate; Inclinometers; Maximum Rotation; Subsequently, the structural monitoring is exemplified by verifying that the currently measured rotations do not exceed the experimentally identified threshold values: if the threshold rotation is exceeded somewhere, the corresponding deformed shape is evaluated in real time from measured rotations so that comparison with Finite Element simulations might provide with useful indications on the effects of exceeding rotations. III Fabre Conference: Existing Bridges, Viaducts, and Tunnels: Research, Innovation, and Applications Structural monitoring of bridges using inclinometer measurements Marco Pirrò a , Carmelo Gentile b, * a Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering (ABC), Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy Abstract Selected results collected in the continuous monitoring of a 3-span overpass using inclinometers are reported in the paper. The investigated structure is a steel-concrete composite bridge, has a total length of 108 m and spans of (30 + 48 + 30) m length. 30 bi-axial inclinometers (range of ±15° and resolution of 0.001°) were installed along the two sides of the infrastructure, so that 5 cross-sections per span were instrumented (i.e., at supports, quarter spans and mid span). After the installation of the inclinometers, load tests were performed and the vertical deflections corresponding to the centre of each span were measured using LVDT sensors. Centred and eccentric positions of the loading trucks along the bridge allowed to attain about 75% of the bending/torsion capacity of the bridge. The load tests had the two-fold objective of: (a) verifying the accuracy of the numerical tools developed to estimate the bridge deflections from measured rotations and (b) experimentally estimating the thresholds rotations at different points of the bridge at study.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-02-2399-4242; fax: +39-02-2399-2225. E-mail address: carmelo.gentile@polimi.it

2452-3216 © 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Conference 10.1016/j.prostr.2026.06.071