Monitoring of the structural health of the 1915Çanakkale bridge

Monitoring of the structural health of the largest suspension bridge in the world in Turkey

An exceptional structure

Sixense’s Monitoring division works on an extraordinary structure in the Dardanelles Strait: the 1915Çanakkale bridge, which the Turks call the “1915 Dardanelles bridge”, in reference to a naval victory for Turkey. This suspension bridge has the longest central span in the world: 2,023 meters, in homage to the centenary of the foundation of the Turkish Republic.

What are the particularities of this structure?

In Turkey, 400 km southwest of Istanbul, the Dardanelles Strait is the only access between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is there, near the city of Çanakkale (former city of Troy), that the 1915 Çanakkale bridge stands and was inaugurated at the end of March 2022.

This 3,563-meter-long suspension bridge is made up of two pylons 2,023 meters apart supporting a 45-meter-wide deck, through 2 cables and its suspension.

The structure was built by a consortium of 2 Turkish companies (Limak and Yapı Merkezi) and 2 South Korean companies (DL E&C and SK ecoplant). Sixense has been selected by this consortium to design, manufacture and install an exceptional instrumentation system with more than 1,000 sensors… a world premiere!

How will the Sixense SHM system help optimize bridge operations?

These 1,000 sensors will provide a continuous view of the multiple behaviours of the structure in relation to stresses to which it will be subjected. The system will provide information on deck and cable vibrations, stress concentrations in the mechanical elements, temperature at various points on the structure, weather and seismic information, and the concentration of traffic on the structure.

The data is accessible in real time on the Sixense monitoring platform.

Much more than a visualization of phenomena, the system put in place by Sixense will allow scenario predictions by varying the environmental parameters of the structure. Thus, the operator will be able to estimate the aging of the structure according to its traffic increase predictions.