Bridge deck deterioration assessment by nondestructive testing methods

Abstract

In general, the inspection of the damage on concrete bridge deck is usually done by visual inspection and coring test together with simple survey such as chain drag and hammer sounding. These methods may not be able to verify damage condition correctly. However, at present, there are many nondestructive testing methods which is used to investigate the damage on concrete bridge deck together with simple testing methods. For this study, ground penetrating radar, half-cell potential and impact echo test were selected to evaluate damage condition of concrete bridge deck. The results from simple methods can be detect only damage on the concrete bridge deck or damage that located closed to concrete bridge surface. While nondestructive test i.e. ground penetrating radar can detect deterioration of bridge deck by measuring the amplitude of reinforcing steel in the concrete. Moreover, half-cell potential able to gives location where there is possibility of rust corrosion in reinforcing steel. In addition, impact echo test can evaluate integrity of concrete bridge whole concrete depth as well. In the end, all survey results will be random sampled to confirm data results.