SHM APPLIED TO THE REHABILITATION OF HISTORIC STEEL BRIDGE

Resumo

The historic Imperial Dom Pedro II Bridge, located in Bahia, Brazil, underwent a major rehabilitation
program that began in 2018. All tensioned diagonals, made of puddled iron, were replaced with new components,
made of stronger steel. This paper presents a numerical model of the Dom Pedro II Bridge capable of reproducing
structural performance before and during the replacement work. Numerical results were verified by the
experimental data derived from monitoring systems installed in the bridge on several occasions. The differences
observed from the numerical results could be justified by the bridge’s age and maintenance condition. In general,
the numerical results were fairly similar to the measured data, indicating the numerical solution could be used to
assess other sequences of tensioned diagonal replacements. It was concluded that the replacement work improved
the safety of the bridge, and the proposed modeling process may be suitable for other sequences of replacements,
including other steel truss bridges.