The Federal Road network of Germany contains a large number of highway structures like bridges, tunnels, retaining walls and noise reduction walls. Maintenance programs are prepared on the results of inspections which are carried out every 6 years as a visual inspection, thus implying that damages are typically only identified when the deterioration becomes visible. This indicates that there is ample demand for test methods to establish the condition of structures before heavy damage has occurred. For regular inspections, non-destructive test methods (NDT) may provide a relatively quick and inexpensive means to establish whether a structure is still in a serviceable condition or not. Results of these investigations may improve the quality of information by eliminating the subjectivity associated with current visual inspection techniques. The paper describes present application of NDT in Germany in the field of inspection and analyses of structures. This covers the application of sonic and radar devices to localise prestressing reinforcement and to detect damaged areas, electric methods to detect corrosion, magnetic methods to detect ruptures in steel elements and the use of a high speed two channel laser scanning device for inspection of road tunnels. Beside this, areas are given, where improvements in NDT methods could bring real benefit for the inspection of structures.
NDT methods for the inspection of highway structures
ZfP-Verfahren zur Untersuchung von Autobahnstrukturen
2003
10 Seiten, 9 Bilder, 8 Quellen
(Nicht paginiert)
Conference paper
Storage medium
English
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