Nondestructive evaluation techniques for enhanced bridge inspection

摘要

Nondestructive evaluation of bridges is a critical aspect in the US aging infrastructure problem. For example in California there are 26,000 bridges, 3000 are made of steel, and of the steel bridges, 1000 are fracture critical. California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Federal Highway Administration, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are collaborating to develop and field NDE techniques to improve bridge inspections. We have demonstrated our NDE technologies on several bridge inspection applications. An early collaboration was to ultrasonically evaluate the steel pins in the E-9 pier on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Following the Loma-Prieta earthquake in 1989 and the road way collapse at the E-9 pier, a complete nondestructive evaluation was conducted by Caltrans inspectors and several ultrasonic indications were noted. LLNL worked with Caltrans to help identify the source of these reflections. Another project was to digitally enhance high energy radiographs of bridge components such as cable end caps. We demonstrated our ability to improve the detection of corrosion and fiber breakage inside the end cap. An extension of this technology is limited view computer tomography (CT). We implemented our limited view CT software and produced cross-sectional views of bridge cables from digitized radiographic films. Most recently, we are developing dual band infrared imaging techniques to assess bridge decks for delaminations. We have demonstrated the potential of our NDE technology for enhancing the inspection of the country's aging bridges.