Sustainability of bridge foundations using electrical resistivity imaging and induced polarization to support transportation safety.

Details

• Creators:
  Hurlebaus, Stefan ; Briaud, Jean-Louis ; Tucker, Stacey
• Corporate Creators:
  Texas A&M Transportation Institute
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Bridge foundations
  • Electrical resistivity
  • Polarization
  • Scour
  • Nondestructive tests
  • Structural health monitoring
  • Depth
  • Feasibility analysis
• Publication/ Report Number:
  SWUTC/14/600451-00028-1
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Texas
• Corporate Publisher:
  Southwest Region University Transportation Center (U.S.)
• Abstract:
  As of September 2007, there were 67,240 U.S. bridges in the National Bridge Inventory classified as having unknown ; foundations (FHWA 2008). The bridges spanning rivers are of critical importance due to the risks of potential scour. In fact, it is ; estimated that 60 percent of all bridge collapses are due to scour (Parola et al. 1997). Not only are these failures costly, they can be ; deadly for the traveling public. On April 5, 1987, 10 people were killed in New York when a pier collapsed on the Schoharie ; Creek Bridge causing two spans of the deck to fall into the creek. Several other fatal collapses have occurred since the Schoharie ; Creek Bridge failure. Detecting scour is only part of the assessment that must take place to determine risk of failure and knowing ; the foundation depth is a critical component of the assessment. ; This research explored the feasibility and effectiveness of induced polarization (IP) and electrical resistivity imaging ; (ERI), near surface geophysical methods, for determining the depth of unknown foundations. With budget cuts and deteriorating ; infrastructure, there is a need to seek alternative solutions for nondestructive structural integrity testing that are more robust to limit ; bridge failures that hinder transportation safety. The existing methods for unknown bridge foundations in the literature are often ; hindered by the type of foundation or require the use of a borehole, making them very costly. As a result, only a few states are ; working to identify the depth of unknown bridge foundations around them. In order to solve this national problem, a new and ; effective method needs to be investigated with full scale bridge testing and disseminated nationwide. In this work, an experimental ; study was conducted at a National Geotechnical Experimentation Site (NGES) to identify key parameters for the testing design and ; setup in order to obtain optimal surveys of bridge foundations. The conclusions of the NGES investigations were used to plan the ; field surveys on four bridges with known foundations. The outcomes of the four bridges showed that IP and ERI can be used in ; concert with one another to estimate the type and depth of bridge foundations. The results of the field surveys were used to create ; a probability of non-exceedance curve for future predictions of unknown bridge foundations using the methods described in this ; research. Finally, the probability of exceedance curve was used to validate the method with testing on a foundation unknown at ; the time of testing, and the use of IP and ERI were extended to other subsurface infrastructure when a gas line was imaged
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• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  DTRT12-G-UTC06
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/27383/dot_27383_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 11.87 MB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:f5158354dec9028205e14d9ccffb592a14d54eeef674f24a58b275234bc265ab