BYU Engineers Study the Use of Rain for Impact-Echo Testing of Bridge Structures

http://news.byu...ridgesrain.aspx

A team of researchers at Brigham Young University have developed a novel
method of impact echo testing to evaluate the condition of bridge decks.
Professors Brian Mazzeo and Spencer Guthrie have developed this novel method
that uses impacts as small as a rain drop to create an acoustic foot print that
can indicate defects in the structure of the road bed.

"There is a difference between water hitting intact structures and water hitting
flawed structures," Mazzeo said. "We can detect things you can’t see with a
visual inspection; things happening within the bridge itself...The response gives
you an indication of both the size and the depth of the flaw."

The economic impact of using water droplets to monitor bridge condition
makes this method even more compelling than common visual inspection,
which often cannot detect sub-surface indications below the visible portion of
the bridge structure. The research, published in the October issue of Non-
Destructive Testing and Evaluation International, may very well lead to in-situ
monitoring apparatus that continually is able to give real-time condition
monitoring reports to a central station.

"The infrastructure in the U.S. is aging, and there’s a lot of work that needs to
be done," Guthrie said. "We need to be able to rapidly assess bridge decks so
we can understand the extent of deterioration and apply the right treatment at
the right time."

"We would love to be able to drive over a bridge at 25 or 30 mph, spray it with
water while we’re driving and be able to detect all the structural flaws on the
bridge," Mazzeo said. "We think there is a huge opportunity, but we need to
keep improving on the physics."