Infrasense Presents Latest Research at NDE-NDT for Highways and Bridges
Posted: 2012-6-12
Infrasense is pleased to announce it will be participating in the NDE-NDT for
Highways and Bridges: Structural Materials Technology (SMT) Conference, being
held in New York from the 21-24 of August. The biennial conference aims to,
"promote the exchange of information between national and international
researchers, practitioners and infrastructure owners on the application of
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) and Nondestructive Testing (NDT) technologies
for the condition assessment of highway bridge and pavement infrastructure."
This marks the 6th time Infrasense has attended and contributed with technical
papers, presentations and an exhibit. This year Infrasense staff are primary
authors on two conference papers, and a secondary author on a third
conference paper.
In one paper, we present an independent evaluation of network level bridge
deck condition assessments in Minnesota. MnDOT has carried out NDT
scanning on 166 bridge decks throughout Districts 1, 3, 6, and Metro areas.
Most of the work was carried out with ground penetrating radar (GPR), with
limited additional use of infrared thermography (IR). The purpose of this work
was to determine the degree of unsound concrete in each deck so that
appropriate maintenance and rehabilitation measures could be taken to
maximize the benefit to users for a given budget. As part of this process,
MnDOT commissioned an independent study by EVS, Inc. to review cost,
accuracy, and usefulness of these NDT methods with respect to their estimation
of the actual extent of bridge deck repair. The repair work on 12 of the bridge
decks was evaluated. This evaluation found the GPR and IR results to be within
3.5%-4% of actual repair quantities on average.
In a second paper, Infrasense introduces some unique applications of NDE
technologies to characterize older structures for the purpose of load ratings..
Load rating is carried out on all bridge structures to ensure that they have the
capacity to support the expected vehicular loads, or to appropriately restrict the
vehicular loading on older and/or distressed structures by posting load limits.
For many of these older structures, including culverts, concrete and stone
arches, and precast girder bridges, design or as-built plans are no longer
available to serve as a reference for the load rating analysis calculations. In
these situations, NDE methods are often useful to fill in such missing data as
element thickness, depth of overburden (culverts and arches), rebar depth and
spacing, and estimated concrete strength. Over the past few years, MassDOT
has used these techniques to support load ratings on a large number of
structures. In this presentation, we will discuss the types of structures that have
been investigated, the NDE methods used, the data that was obtained and the
methods of analysis, and the resulting information generated for the load rating
process.
Infrasense remains committed to advancing technology, and to new
applications through active pursuit of an ongoing research and development
program. The above papers will be published in SMT's 2012 publication, but
pre-print copies are available now upon request.
Highways and Bridges: Structural Materials Technology (SMT) Conference, being
held in New York from the 21-24 of August. The biennial conference aims to,
"promote the exchange of information between national and international
researchers, practitioners and infrastructure owners on the application of
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) and Nondestructive Testing (NDT) technologies
for the condition assessment of highway bridge and pavement infrastructure."
This marks the 6th time Infrasense has attended and contributed with technical
papers, presentations and an exhibit. This year Infrasense staff are primary
authors on two conference papers, and a secondary author on a third
conference paper.
In one paper, we present an independent evaluation of network level bridge
deck condition assessments in Minnesota. MnDOT has carried out NDT
scanning on 166 bridge decks throughout Districts 1, 3, 6, and Metro areas.
Most of the work was carried out with ground penetrating radar (GPR), with
limited additional use of infrared thermography (IR). The purpose of this work
was to determine the degree of unsound concrete in each deck so that
appropriate maintenance and rehabilitation measures could be taken to
maximize the benefit to users for a given budget. As part of this process,
MnDOT commissioned an independent study by EVS, Inc. to review cost,
accuracy, and usefulness of these NDT methods with respect to their estimation
of the actual extent of bridge deck repair. The repair work on 12 of the bridge
decks was evaluated. This evaluation found the GPR and IR results to be within
3.5%-4% of actual repair quantities on average.
In a second paper, Infrasense introduces some unique applications of NDE
technologies to characterize older structures for the purpose of load ratings..
Load rating is carried out on all bridge structures to ensure that they have the
capacity to support the expected vehicular loads, or to appropriately restrict the
vehicular loading on older and/or distressed structures by posting load limits.
For many of these older structures, including culverts, concrete and stone
arches, and precast girder bridges, design or as-built plans are no longer
available to serve as a reference for the load rating analysis calculations. In
these situations, NDE methods are often useful to fill in such missing data as
element thickness, depth of overburden (culverts and arches), rebar depth and
spacing, and estimated concrete strength. Over the past few years, MassDOT
has used these techniques to support load ratings on a large number of
structures. In this presentation, we will discuss the types of structures that have
been investigated, the NDE methods used, the data that was obtained and the
methods of analysis, and the resulting information generated for the load rating
process.
Infrasense remains committed to advancing technology, and to new
applications through active pursuit of an ongoing research and development
program. The above papers will be published in SMT's 2012 publication, but
pre-print copies are available now upon request.
