engleski

Application of non-destructive testing in assessment and service life prediction of concrete bridges

Existing bridge maintenance policy, where bridge assessment is based on results of visual inspection is not sufficient since reinforcement corrosion, as the main degradation process of concrete bridges, cannot be timely detected. Hence, new approach, where visual inspection is combined with simple, rapid and cost-effective non-destructive testing (NDT) is presented and demonstrated on the case study: Adriatic Bridge across Sava River in Zagreb. NDT on the bridges includes crack detection, determination of geometry and crack cause identification, estimation of strength and dynamic elastic modulus of concrete, rebar detection, measurements of rebar diameter, concrete cover, electrical resistivity of concrete and half-cell potential. Application of NDT increases the objectivity of the visual inspection results and allows detection of invisible defects, what was confirmed by additional destructive testing on the case study. Utilization of results obtained by visual inspection and NDTs in numerical models for service life prediction of structure is discussed, highlighting the importance of inclusion of performance indicators variation due to non-uniformity of concrete quality (local cracks, damage).

bridge, corrosion, crack, non-destructive testing

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