Deployment of Ground Penetrating Radar and Ultrasonic Tomographer Non-Destructive Techniques for Assessment of Corrosion-Deteriorated Adjacent Prestressed Concrete Box Beams

Civil infrastructure systems play an important role in every aspect of the United States. The average age of the nation’s 607,380 bridges is approximately 42 years old and one in nine of the nation’s bridges is rated as structurally deficient. The United States is facing a major challenge to build safe and sound bridge systems with long-term durability, low maintenance costs and short construction periods. About 26 percent of the highway bridges in the United States are in need of repair or replacement, and a large number of these deficient bridges are reinforced or prestressed concrete structures. The cost of the United States infrastructure rehabilitation is estimated at over 1.5 trillion dollars over the next five years, with corrosion deterioration costs due to deicing salt and sea salt estimated at $150 billion. The United States Congress has recently approved a multi-year, $305 billion highway, transit and railway authorization bill to provide much-needed funds for State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to fix deteriorated and deficient transportation infrastructure. The corrosion of reinforcing steel and prestressing strands is one of the major causes of deterioration, reduced durability or even failure of reinforced and prestressed concrete bridge structures. Corrosion does not only destroy the smooth riding quality of the bridge deck, but it could eventually compromise the structural integrity and safety of the bridge. Over the past few years, West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) has provided sizable funds to support the Lead Investigator’s work to assess the service life of corrosion-deteriorated reinforced concrete (RC) members in highway bridges (Zatar 2014). Bridges built with adjacent precast, pre-stressed concrete box beams are very popular and economical in all MATS States and nationwide. They have been used in the past two decades to foster the Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) concept. According to a recent National Bridge Inventory data, adjacent concrete box beams constitute 17 percent of bridges built annually on public roads (Naito and Warncke 2008 and Russell 2009). Without proper guidance, corrosion problems may be exacerbated for adjacent prestressed concrete (PC) box beams. Any rational decision regarding maintenance, repair, or replacement of the deteriorated members should take into account the member’s condition, the extent of deterioration, the expected remaining service life and the impact of alternative maintenance and repair options on the service life of the members. While visual inspection might provide a qualitative estimate of the damage, the specific location along a strand and the damage level cannot be clearly defined. There have been multiple cases where accurate condition assessments have revealed insufficient capacities and standard remediation and rehabilitation were inadequate. Evaluations of strand corrosion, broken strands and duct voids of adjacent PC box beams are essential in developing accurate and reasonable repair and maintenance strategies. This project aims at identifying the feasibility of using Ground Penetrating Rader (GPR) and Ultrasonic Tomographer to assess prestressed tendons’ condition, to provide detailed information about concrete deterioration and to assist with assessment and management of corrosion-deteriorated adjacent box beams in the Mid-Atlantic States.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT13-G-UTC33

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Marshall University, Huntington

  College of Information Technology and Engineering
  One John Marshall Drive
  Huntington, WV  United States  25755

  University of Virginia, Charlottesville

  Center for Transportation Studies
  P.O. Box 400742, Thornton Hall, D228
  Charlottesville, VA  United States  22903

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability Center

  University of Virginia
  Charlottesville, VA  United States 
• Performing Organizations:

  Marshall University, Huntington

  College of Information Technology and Engineering
  One John Marshall Drive
  Huntington, WV  United States  25755

  University of Virginia, Charlottesville

  Center for Transportation Studies
  P.O. Box 400742, Thornton Hall, D228
  Charlottesville, VA  United States  22903
• Principal Investigators:

  Zatar, Wael

  Nguyen, Hai

  Ozbulut, O

• Start Date: 20170501
• Expected Completion Date: 20180531
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Box beams; Corrosion; Deterioration; Evaluation and assessment; Feasibility analysis; Ground penetrating radar; Nondestructive tests; Prestressed concrete bridges; Tomography
• Geographic Terms: Mid-Atlantic Region (United States)
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01645917
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC33
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Sep 11 2017 4:59PM