Condition Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Bridges by Combined Nondestructive Test Techniques

Abstract

In some countries, collapse of bridges initiated the formal requirements for the inspection of highway bridges. Almost in all developed countries, the bridge management systems have been developed for cost-effective allocation of limited budgets for deteriorating bridges. Visual inspections are one of the most important parts of a bridge management system. On the other hand, many new and promising techniques for the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of highway bridges have emerged in the past decades. NDT methods are costly and time consuming as well; since they cannot be used widely in bridge management systems. However, NDT methods can be used as verification of visual inspections in bridge management systems. This paper discusses visual inspections of 200 reinforced concrete bridges in Turkey and non-destructive testing applications performed on 10 bridges, which were most deficient. Penetration resistance, ultrasonic pulse velocity, rebar locating and reinforcement corrosion tests are performed on decks, piers and beams of reinforced concrete bridges and the results are compared with the results of visual inspections.

Detection and Inspection of Steel Bars in Reinforced Concrete Structures Using Active Infrared Thermography with Microwave Excitation and Eddy Current Sensors

“…Usually, such tests should be conducted after the concrete has hardened and without damaging the structure. For this reason nondestructive testing methods (NDTs) are commonly used for this evaluation [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. There are several aspects in reinforced concrete testing, which are important from the practical point of view: Assessing the dimensions of structural elements and locating damage and defects (such as voids, cracks and inclusions).…”

Identification of rebars in a reinforced mesh using eddy current method

“…radiography), or obtained results are difficult to interpret. [1,2,3] Electromagnetic methods are one of the most promising category of methods. They are very sensitive, relatively inexpensive, easy to implement and use.…”