Digital twin-based non-destructive testing for structural health monitoring of bridges

Bridges are critical components of transportation infrastructure, connecting communities and facilitating the movement of goods and people. Real-time monitoring of structural states of bridges can provide reasonable guidance for bridge maintenance. To reduce maintenance costs and extend the lifespan of bridges, a digital twin-based non-destructive testing (NDT) method for the structural health monitoring of bridges is proposed. The digital twin-based NDT method is realised by the combination of three-dimensional modelling technology, sensor technology, finite element (FE) method, and surrogate models. The main advantage of the proposed method is that each node of the FE model can be regarded as a virtual sensor to reflect the structural performance of the bridge. In other words, the structural performance of the entire bridge can be monitored by the digital twin-based NDT method. In addition, the digital twin-based NDT method integrates the advantages of FE models that can provide a causal relationship in structural analysis and the characteristics of surrogate models that are easy to build and less costly. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by a suspension bridge.