Bearing condition assessment of a simply elastic supported beam based on impact vibration testing

The mechanical properties of bridge bearings gradually deteriorate over time, resulting from daily traffic loading and harsh environmental conditions. However, efficient detection of in-service bridge bearings is still challenging, especially in quantifying support stiffness. This study presents a bridge bearing condition assessment framework of a simply elastic supported beam based on impact vibration testing and structural flexibility identification. Firstly, the dynamic response equation of a simply supported beam with elastic boundary constraints is established. The modal orthogonality of Euler-Bernoulli beams and the corresponding overall matrix of undetermined coefficients are derived using the separate variable method. Subsequently, the flexibility matrix of the simply elastic supported beam is derived and verified in the cases of forward and inverse analysis, respectively. Furthermore, the vertical and rotational stiffness of the bearings are established based on the structural flexibility matrix. Finally, experimental verification is performed to identify the flexibility and the vertical support stiffness of the simply elastic supported beam based on impact vibration tests. The results indicate that the proposed the bearing condition assessment framework can straightforwardly quantify support stiffness.