Identification of span of Multi-span Simply Supported Girders by the Longitudinal Level Waveforms

In high-speed railways, the periodic component of longitudinal level on the top surface of the track can be observed for multi-span simply supported girders. To monitor this component, the paper proposes a method to determine the locating position of simply supported girders using longitudinal level waveforms. The method first applies time-frequency analysis to determine the locating position of simply supported girder bridges in the longitudinal level waveform. Then it adopts a local minimum detection strategy to identify the locating position of the girders. The method is evaluated using the longitudinal level data of a 100km high-speed railway in China; the results show good locating performance.