Refined finite element modeling of a damaged bridge with virtual distortion method coupling solid superelement

A new type of metamodel, the virtual distortion method (VDM) coupling superelement, is proposed to alleviate the calculation burden of refined finite element (FE) modeling of existing damaged bridges. First, VDM based on a beam-like element is extended to a solid superelement, and the transfer matrix and influence matrices of a complicated superelement suitable for VDM are obtained. Second, aiming at an actual damaged bridge, a two-step procedure of refined modeling based on FE model updating is presented to precisely model the local damaged regions of the structure, which is difficult to achieve in FE analysis. Finally, using the measured static deformation from the load test, a precise FE model of this damaged bridge is obtained with high efficiency by importing the VDM coupling solid superelement into the above procedure of refined modeling.