About the project

The goal of the EvPres project is to develop and validate a structural health monitoring (SHM) methodology for the identification and quantification of prestressing forces in prestressed concrete bridges. The methodology will combine high-fidelity numerical modelling, experimental measurements, structural response analysis, and artificial intelligence to identify prestress-sensitive features and investigate their robustness under measurement noise, modelling uncertainties, and increasing structural complexity. The results of the project will contribute to the condition assessment of prestressed concrete bridges across Europe, supporting the early detection of prestress-related deterioration and helping to reduce the risk of unexpected failure and unnecessary or premature bridge closure. EvPres thus aims to contribute to safer and more efficient management of prestressed concrete bridge infrastructure.

Three main research gaps (RGs) have been identified in the state-of-the-art of quantifying prestressing forces in prestressed concrete bridges:

• RG1: A lack of sufficiently advanced and experimentally validated numerical models of prestressed concrete girders and bridges, particularly for investigating the influence of different prestress states on static and dynamic structural response.
• RG2: Limited understanding of which structural response features are sufficiently sensitive and robust for prestress identification, particularly in the presence of measurement noise, modelling uncertainties, and structural imperfections.
• RG3: A lack of a validated and transferable SHM framework that integrates physics-based identification and AI-assisted methods and can be transferred from controlled laboratory-scale structures to bridge-scale diagnostic testing.