Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)

Bridges are backbones of the economy in every country in the world. These key elements of the traffic infrastructure usually consist of steel, cast iron and prestressed concrete – and nowadays, many of them are aging. It is very difficult to determine a bridge’s stability merely by inspecting the structure from the outside. But thanks to Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), operators now have solutions to identify degradations of a bridge’s structural integrity at an early stage – so they can take proactive and efficient steps to address these critical issues.

Backed by over 50 years of measurement technology experience, Kistler supplies fully customized monitoring solutions for bridges of all types – solutions that ensure seamless availability of highly reliable bridge structural data.

Our complete solution provides a precise determination of several physical quantities related to the structural behaviour of the bridge. Specifically, these are:

Kistler provides a wide range of services that ensure optimal support for users in all phases of the project, and throughout the entire operation and service lifespan of our complete solution. Kistler offers you flexibility: you can source the services you require according to your specific project, your requirements, and your own expertise.

Bridge structures have limited service lifetimes – and they face growing challenges due to natural aging as well as major increases in traffic density and loading. Holistic solutions from Kistler take account of all relevant parameters to ensure effective protection for infrastructure. At the same time as monitoring the bridge’s structure, our technology measures all vehicles passing over it on a 24/7 basis – so any vehicle violating the legal limits for gross vehicle weight, axle weight and speed can be identified and then prosecuted.