Scientific article
English

Assessing the condition state of a concrete bridge combining visual inspection and nonlinear deterioration model

Publication date2022-05-31
First online date2022-05-31
Abstract

The degradation of a concrete structure in northern climate is mainly due to the corrosion of steel reinforcements and cumulative damages from mechanical loading. Infrastructure managers heavily rely on ratings obtained from visual field surveys and the interpretation of inspection reports to predict the future structure states and to plan appropriate maintenance and replacement activities. In this paper, an effective structure management framework is proposed, combining information from on-site visual inspections and predictions from a nonlinear chloride transport model, to improve diagnostics for preventive maintenance. Meaningful predictions were obtained by using climatic data from neighboring weather stations and characterising the concrete transport properties with non-destructive tests. The chloride profiles from the model can be validated with core-drilled samples, if available. Predictions from the model were used to estimate the probability of the corrosion initiation and the condition states of the structural elements to complement the visual inspection observations. Finally, the ratings of each element were combined to obtain a global rating of the structure by considering the relative criticality of each element for the safety and the performance of the structure. The methodology was applied to a typical bridge in Montreal and demonstrated good agreement between the model predictions.

Keywords
  • visual inspection
  • concrete bridges
  • corrosion rebar
  • deterioration
  • durability
  • assessment
  • maintenance
Citation (ISO format)
BAH, Abdoul S. et al. Assessing the condition state of a concrete bridge combining visual inspection and nonlinear deterioration model. In: Structure and infrastructure engineering, 2022, p. 1–16. doi: 10.1080/15732479.2022.2081987
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelRestricted
Identifiers
Journal ISSN1573-2479
135views
0downloads

Technical informations

Creation03/06/2022 14:14:00
First validation03/06/2022 14:14:00
Update time16/03/2023 06:40:20
Status update16/03/2023 06:40:18
Last indexation01/11/2024 01:50:13
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack