Dynamic Assessment of Bridges and Beams by Proprietary Designed Hammer

Dynamic assessment of structures is used for a variety of reasons including damage detection, seismic assessment, condition monitoring and etc. In the civil engineering field bridges are strategic structures. Dynamic assessment of large structures such as bridges usually requires high levels of energy input to excite relatively low frequency responses. In general, the excitation methods fall into the main categories of ambient and impact vibration. In the ambient excitation method, amount of force to the structure is not directly measured. But in the second method, measured-input excitations are usually applied at a single location where the force input due to impact to the structure can be monitored.This paper considers an alternative method of introducing an impulsive force to a structure by the use of two proprietary designed hammers. These hammers are used for excitation of beams, slabs and bridges.