Monitoring bridge scour using fiber optic sensors : [tech summary].

Details

• Creators:
  Cai, Steve C. S.
• Corporate Creators:
  Louisiana Transportation Research Center
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Bridge foundations
  • Scour
  • Structural health monitoring
  • Fiber optics
  • Sensors
  • Instrumentation
  • Laboratory tests
• Publication/ Report Number:
  State Project No. 736-99-1573 ; LTRC Project No. 08¿2ST
• Resource Type:
  Brief
• Geographical Coverage:
  Louisiana
• Corporate Publisher:
  Louisiana Transportation Research Center
• Abstract:
  It is well known that scour is one of the major causes of bridge failures. In the last 30 years, more than 1,000 bridges collapsed in ; the US and about 60% of the failures are related to the scour of bridge’s foundations. Due to the difficulty in inspecting bridge ; scour, scour-induced failures tend to occur suddenly without prior warning or signs of distress to the structures. Owing to the ; threat of hurricane-induced flooding and the fact that there are a significant number of coastal and river/bayou bridges in ; Louisiana, a more reliable inspection and monitoring procedure for bridge scour is needed. ; Fiber Optic Sensors (FOSs) have become increasingly popular in long-term monitoring of structures, especially in harsh ; environments. The FOSs’ major unique benefits related to this project are: corrosion-resistant and long-term stability that make ; it possible to be embedded in soil/foundations and submerged in water; distributed sensing and multiplexing capabilities that ; make it possible to install a series of sensors along a single cable to collect information along the depth of the foundation; small ; size and light weight with little disturbance to the structure and soil; immunity to electromagnetic/radio frequency interference, ; etc. FOS system, particularly fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors, has been explored for this application by using it to measure ; strain and other related information so that the scour situation of bridges can be either directly ; monitored or derived. ; This project will help Louisiana develop the required expertise for the field applications of ; fiber optic sensors. The success of this research project will reap great economic benefits and ; may largely impact the practice of bridge maintenance in Louisiana. There is also potential for ; this project to develop and test equipment that can be used for future scour monitoring. The ; ultimate objective will be to develop more efficient strategies to mitigate the deficiencies of ; bridges.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/28835/dot_28835_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 365.30 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:bd493e504d215f36bc4cddd962240dd4a87b50ae1f9a8e0593606e3592db5064