Condition assessment of reinforced concrete bridges using nondestructive testing techniques

Abstract

The transportation infrastructure in the Romania is deteriorating and will require significant improvements. A major component of maintenance is the ability to accurately assess the condition of the transportation infrastructure.
A realistic and reliable assessment of a damaged bridge structure must comprise the evaluation of bridge condition, load bearing capacity, remaining service life and functionality.
It is essential for a reliable condition assessment to have records indicating the initiation of defects and deterioration processes and of their propagation from the beginning of bridge service life. As such records seldom exist for older existing structures and it is imperative to supplant them by other information using NDT techniques. Nondestructive testing methods help quickly diagnose hidden problems and assess bridge condition.
This paper present defects, the factors having strong impact on the deterioration and different nondestructive testing techniques used in the assessment of concrete bridge structure and promote the ability of these methods to detect defects with varying precision.
Defects evaluation should be done for individual structural materials with respect to the damage type, its intensity and extent and to the affected structural element.
Bridge engineers involved in the routine or extraordinary inspection of bridges have to take correct and reliable decision about the defect type, the associated deterioration process, the relevant cause and possible propagation of the damage in the future. This evaluation should be not based only on the expertise, engineering judgment and experience of the inspector.