THE USE OF KINEMATIC GPS AND GLONASS TO MONITOR THE DEFLECTION OF THE HUMBER BRIDGE UNDER HIGH LOADING

GPS is frequently demonstrated as being a valuable engineering surveying and monitoring tool. The use of real time kinematic GPS has many applications, including its use to monitor the deflection of large structures such as bridges.
The following paper details trials recently conducted by the IESSG whereby kinematic GPS was used to monitor the deflection of the Humber Bridge under a loading of 160 tons, moved across the bridge by five articulated lorries. The trial consisted of placing four dual frequency GPS receivers and a GPS/GLONASS receiver on the bridge deck, a dual frequency GPS receiver upon one of the lorries and reference receivers placed on land. The data, gathered at 5 Hz, was then processed in an On the Fly manner resulting in a precision of the order of a few millimetres. Finite element modelling of such structures can take advantage of similar trials and results.