Engineering Commons^™

Condition Assessment Of Bridge Decks With Asphalt Overlay, Sepehr Pashoutani, Jinying Zhu

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Ground penetrating RADAR (GPR) is a widely used nondestructive testing (NDT) method for bridge deck evaluation. However, the current GPR signal and data processing software and algorithms are not able to provide comprehensive information about bridge deck condition. Although the original objective of this research project was to develop GPR analysis algorithms for condition assessment of bridge decks with asphalt overlay, the scope of work has been expanded to concrete bridge decks with or without overlays.

In this study, the research team developed a complete GPR analysis procedure that includes the following components: 1) obtain zero-time for GPR reflection at …

A Comprehensive Framework For Life-Cycle Cost Assessment Of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks, Mohamed Soliman, Samir Ahmed, Ligang Shen

Publications

Various environmental and mechanical stressors cause deterioration of concrete bridge decks. Normal wear and tear, freeze and thaw cycles, and chloride penetration due to deicing salts can cause aggressive deterioration that usually require frequent interventions during the life-cycle of the bridge. These interventions include deck maintenance and repairs (e.g., application of sealers or overlay placement) as well as bridge deck replacement. The quantification of the life-cycle cost of bridge decks considering maintenance and repair activities represents a significant challenge facing local and state transportation agencies. The life-cycle maintenance activities not only increase the direct life-cycle cost of the bridge, but …

Rapid Repair Of Bridge Decks In Cold Weather, Abheetha Peiris, Issam E. Harik

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Using regular concrete or mortar to repair potholes in concrete bridge decks is typically infeasible in cold weather due to extended set and curing times. However, several commercially available rapid-set repair materials can be used at temperatures near or below freezing. This study evaluated five such materials to assess their properties and determine which are most suited to executing pothole repairs in cold weather. For each material, laboratory testing evaluated set times, compressive strength gains, and bond strength to existing concrete at three temperatures: 35°F, 15°F, and 0°F (1.7°C, -9.4°C, and -17.8°C, respectively). Testing identified Phoscrete as the repair material …

Bridge Deck Delamination Segmentation Based On Aerial Thermography Through Regularized Grayscale Morphological Reconstruction And Gradient Statistics, Chongsheng Cheng, Zhexiong Shang, Zhigang Shen

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Environmental and surface texture-induced temperature variation across the bridge deck is a major source of errors in delamination detection through thermography. This type of external noise poises a significant challenge for conventional quantitative methods such as global thresholding and k-means clustering. An iterative top-down approach is proposed for delamination segmentation based on grayscale morphological reconstruction. A weight-decay function was used to regularize the reconstruction for regional maxima extraction. The mean and coefficient of variation of temperature gradient estimated from delamination boundaries were used for discrimination. The proposed approach was tested on a lab experiment and an in-service bridge deck. The …