Development of Detecting System for Under Paint Corrosion of Steel Bridge Using Magnetic Sensor

摘要

Corrosion can cause section loss or cracks of steel members which is one of the most important causes of deterioration of steel bridges. Under paint corrosion is hard to be observed until it has caused paint to blister, crack, or chip. For some critical components of the steel bridge, it is fatal and could even cause the collapse of the whole bridge. Nowadays the most common approach to steel bridge inspection is visual inspection by inspectors with inspection trucks. This paper mainly presents a detecting system for under paint corrosion including a robotic mechanism which can move on the surface of steel bridge with magnetic wheels and a sensing system with magnetic sensor to detect under paint corrosion of steel bridges. Experimental results showed that the robotic mechanism can move on the steel bridge freely without disrupting traffic to reduce the risks to the inspectors, and the magnetic sensor can also detect the under paint corrosion well.