ON THE GUIDELINES TO THE NATIONAL STANDARD FOR DYNAMIC TESTING OF HIGHWAY BRIDGES
Authors: Bodnar Larisa , Redchenko Vasyl 
Published: May 2020

Maintenance of bridges in an operational state is an important task for engineers who are commissioned to operate them. The main role in solving this issue is the timely detection of changes in the technical state of the bridge’s structures and their correct interpretation – that is the process called technical diagnostics. Bridges are operated under dynamic load (mobile transport) and that is why dynamic testing of bridges is one of the main methods for diagnosing their technical state.
Only on the highways of state importance 74 bridges that are subject to mandatory dynamic testing in accordance with the requirements of the state standard DSTU 8748: 2017 are operated. During testing the bridges the reliable data on the work of bridge spans and their carrying capacity can be obtained precisely during their dynamic testing.
The purpose of the study is to provide the performers of dynamic tests of highway bridges with methodological support in preparing, conducting, developing and analyzing the data of these tests in order to determine the quantitative characteristics of bridge spans and their actual carrying capacity.
The adoption and implementation of the Guidelines for the national standard DSTU “Guidelines for conducting dynamic tests of highway bridges” will allow more wide and efficient application of dynamic tests within the scope of technical diagnostics of highway bridges. This will ensure their reliable and no-failure operation.
In January 1, 2019, DSTU 8748:2017 “Guidelines for conducting the dynamic tests of highway bridges” came into force. The regulations known in the world regarding the impact of vibration on building structures are of a general nature and do not take into account the dynamics specificity of the bridges, therefore the draft national standard is a pioneer targeted at an assessment of the technical state of bridges. The DSTU defines the following items: the scope of work, methods and algorithms for analyzing the results of dynamic tests and it also sets certain requirements that must be met by the performers. The DSTU was developed basing on previously worked out methods for dynamic testing of bridges and taking into account the latest scientific research. The adoption and implementation of this standard allows more accurately determining the actual carrying capacity of highway bridges, as well as assigning the appropriate mode of their operation which will contribute to increasing the economic and social impact by improving the quality of work on determining the technical state of bridges and, accordingly, more justified preparation of the projects for their repair.
Fulfillment of the provisions of the DSTU requires from the performers the solid knowledge on the dynamic of structures and certain practical experience of carrying out the field works on the dynamic testing of bridges using the new techniques. In practice, each performer independently increases his knowledge base on conducting the dynamic tests mainly by studying the technical literature. The search for clarification regarding the specific methodology within the data available in technical literature is time consuming, and as regards certain newer methods, such data are not freely available. That is why the development of the Guidelines for DSTU is an important and urgent task.
Keywords: dynamic test, dynamic load, Guidelines, highway bridge, structure.