Remote structural health monitoring and corrosion-rate modeling of steel bridges : final report on Project F08-AR13

The U.S. Army maintains over 200 steel bridges. Conventional bridge inspections do not always detect cracks or corrosion nor determine if a crack is growing. The Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Corrosion Prevention and Control (CPC) program funds demonstration and validation of technologies that reduce corrosion and related costs. Thus, there is an urgent need to assess state-of-the-art technologies and approaches for remote structural health monitoring (SHM) of steel bridges with strategically placed sensors, reliable data acquisition, and analytical software. These components measure critical parameters and reduce risks of catastrophic failure through advance warning. This report discusses successful demonstration/validation of a novel SHM system at two bridges. The systems monitored corrosion using several types of sensors and monitoring systems that transmitted data and alerts via web-connected computers. The ROI for this project is less than breakeven (breakeven ROI=1) due to high research and development costs associated with first-of-their-kind systems. Even so, the SHM system is recommended for implementation on bridges critical for Department of Defense (DoD) use. However, standardization of SHM systems across the DoD is not recommended due to rapidly changing technology. Systems must be designed for specific applications, and each design is greatly influenced by the target structure’s existing issues and concerns.