The maintenance and operation of bridges represent a significant investment in both the public and private domains. In practice, the structural damage of a bridge that accumulates over its life-span is a result of continuous degradation caused mainly by traffic conditions and sudden extreme events (e.g. flooding, fires and severe traffic accidents). However, under heavy truck loading, the deterioration rate of a bridge can be accelerated. As the use of heavier articulated trucks becomes increasingly popular in contemporary freight transportation systems, the development of modern Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques in conjunction with computational modelling becomes necessary. The advancement in this area will allow rapid assessment of the structural health of bridges and detection of ongoing damage to enhance the structural performance of bridges.
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Zhang et al. (2016) studied this question.