@article{d000e452d111424088b6568c6456850c,
title = "Health monitoring of stress‐laminated timber bridges assisted by a hygro‐thermal model for wood material",
abstract = "Timber bridges are economical, easy to construct, use renewable material and can have a long service life, especially in Nordic climates. Nevertheless, durability of timber bridges has been a concern of designers and structural engineers because most of their load‐carrying members are exposed to the external climate. In combination with certain temperatures, the moisture content (MC) accumulated in wood for long periods may cause conditions suitable for timber biodegradation. In addition, moisture induced cracks and deformations are often found in timber decks. This study shows how the long term monitoring of stress‐laminated timber decks can be assisted by a recent multi‐phase finite element model predicting the distribution of MC, relative humidity (RH) and temperature (T) in wood. The hygro‐thermal monitoring data are collected from an earlier study of the S{\o}rliveien Bridge in Norway and from a research on the new Tapiola Bridge in Finland. In both cases, the monitoring uses integrated humidity‐temperature sensors which provide the RH and T in given locations of the deck. The numerical results show a good agreement with the measurements and allow analysing the MCs at the bottom of the decks that could be responsible of cracks and cupping deformations.",
keywords = "Finite element method, Humidity‐temperature sensors, Monitoring, Multi‐phase models, Stress‐laminated timber decks, Timber bridges, Wood moisture content",
author = "Stefania Fortino and Petr Hradil and Keijo Koski and Antti Korkealaakso and Ludovic F{\"u}l{\"o}p and Hauke Burkart and Timo Tirkkonen",
note = "Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by WoodWisdom‐Net project “Durable Timber Bridges” and by project “Delivering Fingertip Knowledge to Enable Service Life Performance Specification of Wood—Click Design”, which is supported under the umbrella of ERA‐NET Cofund ForestValue by the Ministry of the Environment of Finland. ForestValue has received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (V{\"a}yl{\"a}virasto) is a co‐funder of the Click Design project. Funding Information: This research was funded by WoodWisdom?Net project ?Durable Timber Bridges? and by project ?Delivering Fingertip Knowledge to Enable Service Life Performance Specification of Wood?Click Design?, which is supported under the umbrella of ERA?NET Cofund ForestValue by the Ministry of the Environment of Finland. ForestValue has received funding from the European Union?s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (V?yl?virasto) is a co?funder of the Click Design project. Acknowledgments: The authors wish to thank the Norwegian Public Road Administration for providing the monitoring data of S?rliveien Bridge. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (V?yl?virasto) and the City of Espoo is acknowledged for supporting the monitoring of the Tapiola Bridge. The authors would like to warmly thank VTT colleagues Jukka M?kinen, Mikko Kallio, Kalle Raunio, Pekka Halonen, Kari Korhonen for taking care of the on?going monitoring of Tapiola Bridge. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",
year = "2021",
month = jan,
doi = "10.3390/app11010098",
language = "English",
volume = "11",
pages = "1--21",
journal = "Applied Sciences",
issn = "2076-3417",
publisher = "MDPI",
number = "1",
}