Bridge maintenance

Presently only a limited number of accurate and economical techniques exist to test these structures for integrity and safety as well as insure that they meet original design specifications.

[2] No single technology can locate all physical anomalies in and below the concrete, these techniques along with data fusion can assist in the following investigations, to name a few: Infrared thermography and ground-penetrating radar have been developed to locate voids and delaminations in concrete structures such as bridge decks, highways and airport pavements.

Being able to locate voids and delaminations means the structural maintenance engineer can measure the actual cracking and weakening of concrete pavements before catastrophic failures can occur.

By locating anomalous areas, or temperature patterns which differ from the background “norm” on these images, trained engineers can locate the exact anomalous areas that could lead to catastrophic failure of concrete and its supporting soil and backfill systems.

Ground-penetrating radar gives information valuable in determining such characteristics as: target material, voids, fluids, soil or backfill strata, and quantity of reinforcing steel present.