Using Inclinometers to Measure Bridge Deflection

Deflection of a bridge span under designed loads is an important parameter for bridge safety evaluation. However, it is inconvenient to obtain the bridge deflections directly. For bridges over rivers, railways, or highways, a direct measurement method is impractical. A promising bridge deflection measurement method (inclinometer method) is presented in this paper. It offers a simple, practical and inexpensive method of measuring static and dynamic deflections of bridge spans under loads, even for bridge spans that traverse great heights. Hundreds of experiments and practical tests on simple and continuous bridges, utilizing dynamic and static loads, under various vehicle speeds, show that the method has very high precision, which provides an authentic basis for new-built bridge acceptance and old bridge safety evaluation. The method does not need fixed observation positions as other deflection measurement methods because the inclinometers are installed on the bridge directly, which increases measurement efficiency greatly. These features indicate that as a potential method of measuring bridge deflection, inclinometers have significant engineering application value and a promising future.