Condition Monitoring of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks: Current Practices and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Reinforced concrete bridge decks deteriorate over time primarily due to increasing traffic loads, severe environmental conditions, especially in North America, and deferred maintenance. Condition monitoring of those structures in a timely manner is of a great importance for making informed decisions regarding maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement strategies to preserve their value, maintain their levels of service and safeguard against catastrophic failures. The objective of this paper is to introduce a comprehensive review of the current state of the art on condition monitoring of reinforced concrete bridge decks. Deterioration progression of bridge decks including different types of defects (i.e., cracks, corrosion, delamination, spalling, honeycomb and voids), their associated causes and effects are introduced. Commonly used non-invasive and non-destructive evaluation methods, including digital imaging, ground-penetrating radar, infrared thermography, half-cell potential, electrical resistivity, chain drag & hammer sounding, ultrasonic surface wave, ultrasonic pulse echo and impact echo, are presented with their capabilities and limitations. A bibliometric analysis was conducted to investigate the current trend in condition monitoring. The review also examines the frequency of methods used in condition monitoring and provide a classification of recent studies according to study type (e.g., field or laboratory experiment), joint use (i.e., whether study applied method as a stand-alone or hybridized it with another method) and performance (i.e., whether study investigated performance indicators of the applied methods or not). The key stages in monitoring condition states of bridge decks considering risks are discussed. Current practices, challenges and future perspectives are also highlighted.

Hybrid feature selection framework for predicting bridge deck conditions

“…Bridge decks provide a driving surface that facilitates the movement of people and cargo. Environmental factors, increasing traffic volumes, accidents, deferred maintenance, and aging are just a few contributing factors to this element deterioration (Omar and Moselhi 2022). Improving bridge deck maintenance, rehabilitation, and replacement work can effectively lower overall bridge expenditures as well as the bridge's life cycle costs, since maintenance actions of bridge decks account for 50% to 85% of total bridge costs (Gucunski et al 2014).…”

“…Visual examinations and non-destructive evaluation methods (e.g., digital imaging, ground-penetrating radar, and infrared thermography) are utilized to assess the current condition of bridge decks at uniform inspection intervals, e.g., 24 months (FHWA 2004;Omar and Moselhi 2022). However, due to the fact that there are a large number of bridges that require regular inspection, this process requires considerable effort, time, cost, and resources, besides being a source of substantial danger.…”