This paper presents the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation on the Pietratagliata cable-stayed bridge (Udine, Italy). Based on ambient vibration and local dynamic experimental results carried out in order to estimate the dynamic characteristics of the lower vibration modes of the bridge and the axial forces on the suspending cables, the structural identification is performed by means of a geometrically detailed, computationally expensive but refined Finite Element (FE) model, being the optimized configuration representative of an increasingly accurate manual tuning and model updating procedure. Based on the rather close agreement between EMA and FE results, the same optimized FE model (FE-OPT, in the following) is then used to investigate the sensitivity of the bridge dynamic properties to damage in the suspending cables.
