Demonstration of dual-band infrared thermal imaging for bridge inspection. Phase II, final report
Developing and implementing methods of effective bridge rehabilitation is a major issue for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The nation spends $5 billion annually to replace, rehabilitate or construct new bridges. According to the National Bridge Inventory, over 100,000 U.S. bridges are structurally deficient. About 40,000 of these bridges have advanced deck deterioration. The most common causes of serious deck deterioration is delamination. Delaminations result when steel reinforcements within the bridge deck corrode, creating gaps that separate the concrete into layers. A reliable inspection technology, capable of identifying delaminations, would represent a power new tool in bridge maintenance. To date, most bridge inspections rely on human interpretation of surface visual features of chain dragging. These methods are slow, disruptive, unreliable and raise serious safety concerns. Infrared thermal imaging detects subsurface delaminations and surface clutter, which is introduced by foreign material on the roadway. Typically, foreign material which is not always evident on a video tape image, produces a unique IR reflectance background unlike the thermal response of a subsurface delamination. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) uses dual-band infrared (DBIR) thermal imaging to identify and remove nonthermal IR reflectance backgrounds from foreign material on the roadway. DBIR methods improve the performance of IR thermal imaging by a factor of ten, compared to single-band infrared (SBIR) methods. DBIR thermal imaging allows precise temperature measurement to reliably locate bridge deck delaminations and remove wavelength-dependent emissivity variations due to foreign material on the roadway.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 419070
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-CR-123341; ON: DE97001856; IN: DTFH61-93-Y-00145; CNN: Order number DTFH61-93-Y-00145; TRN: 97:000595
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Mar 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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