A novel approach for in-situ evaluation of stress fields in the vicinity of fatigue prone details on highway bridges has been
developed using a low cost microbolometer thermal imager. The approach is based on the well proven theory of thermoelasticity.
The method has been extended to the measurement and visualization of the stress concentrations present at fatigue
prone details on highway bridges subject to random truck loading. The theory and the results of laboratory and field testing
are presented.
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