Development of an LS-DYNA nonlinear finite element model for use in damage detection and health monitoring of highway bridges

As part of a program to apply stochastic system analysis to structural heath monitoring of highway structures, a detailed Finite Element (FE) model of a typical highway bridge has been developed. The model was created for use with the nonlinear explicit FE code, LS-DYNA, and consists of 144 parts and approximately 40,000 elements. The model represents a standard two-lane bridge with a span length of 40 meters. It consists of 4 girders and 21 cross frame sections. This paper discusses some important practical aspects involved in the modeling of such highway bridges including connections, material properties, boundary and dynamic loading conditions. Extensive simulations were conducted using a SGI supercomputer at the FHWA sponsored National Crash Analysis Center at the George Washington University to determine the bridge structural response under dynamic loadings. The resulting data sets from these simulations are used as the basis for chaotic system invariant spectrum analysis described in related papers in this conference.