Pilot testing of a hydraulic bridge exciter

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a hydraulic bridge exciter and its first pilot testing on a full scale railway bridge in service. The exciter is based on a hydraulic load cylinder with a capacity of 50 kN and is intended for controlled dynamic loading up to at least 50 Hz. The load is applied from underneath the bridge, enabling testing while the railway line is in service. The system is shown to produce constant load amplitude even at resonance. The exciter is used to experimentally determine frequency response functions at all sensor locations, which serve as valuable input for model updating and verification. An FE-model of the case study bridge has been developed that is in good agreement with the experimental results.