Real-Time Detection of Cracks on Concrete Bridge Decks Using Deep Learning in the Frequency Domain

This paper presents a vision-based crack detection approach for concrete bridge decks using an integrated one-dimensional convolutional neural network(1D-CNN)and long short-term memory(LSTM)method in the image frequency domain.The so-called 1D-CNN-LSTM algorithm is trained using thousands of images of cracked and non-cracked concrete bridge decks.In order to improve the training efficiency,images are first transformed into the frequency domain during a preprocessing phase.The algorithm is then calibrated using the flattened frequency data.LSTM is used to improve the performance of the developed network for long sequence data.The accuracy of the developed model is 99.05%,98.9%,and 99.25%,respectively,for training,validation,and testing data.An implementation framework is further developed for future application of the trained model for large-scale images.The proposed 1D-CNN-LSTM method exhibits superior performance in comparison with existing deep learning methods in terms of accuracy and computation time.The fast implementation of the 1D-CNN-LSTM algorithm makes it a promising tool for real-time crack detection.

Effect of crack-closure treatment on fatigue durability of cracked rib-to-deck welded joints in steel bridge decks

To evaluate the effect of treating long cracks with the impact crack-closure retrofit(ICR)technique,three rib-to-deck welded specimens with a crack length of about 100 mm were tested.The metallographic structure,crack section,crack propagation life,and stress variation were analyzed.Finite-element models were also developed,and some optimal values of certain parameters are suggested according to the simulated results.The results show that new crack sources are generated on both sides of the ICR-treated region because of the stress distribution.The fatigue lives of cracked specimens with long cracks are significantly improved by the technique.Considerable residual compressive stress is also induced,and so it is suggested that the optimal impact angle to be applied to real bridges should be 70°.The stress at the weld root is distributed uniformly with the crack closed,and the optimal crack-closure depth is 4 mm.To evaluate the effect of different crack-closure depths in tests,it is recommended that a hot-spot stress method which is extrapolated by three reference points should be adopted.

Penetration of the Stiffener Web to Deck Plate Weld in Orthotropic Plated Bridge Decks

This paper reports the results of experimental research the longitudinal stiffeners in an orthotropic plated bridge deck on concerning the connection between the deck plate and the web of a microscopic scale. An important number of test specimens of a weld are studied with the help of a video microscope, to detect the efficiency of the root of the weld. The second part of the paper is concerned with parametric analysis of the lack of weld penetration by using accurate finite element modelling. The results demonstrate that the weld quality often required can not always be assured, which surely has important consequence on the stresses in the weld and the fatigue resistance.

Heating properties of bridge decks using hydronic heating systems with internal or external circulation tubes

A comparison analysis of the heating properties of the hydronic heating system of bridge decks with external(exchange tubes installed at the bottom of the existing bridge deck with voids inside)or internal(exchange tubes embedded in pavement of the newly built bridge deck)tubes was carried out through field tests.Two heating methods(constant heating power and constant inlet fluid temperature)were used to analyze the heat exchange flux and the temperature increments as well as thermally induced stress of the slab.Numerical simulation was conducted to model the bridge deck heating process to analyze the temperature distribution of the bridge surface.The results shows that the heat exchange flux are the same under the same constant heating powers for the two embedded tube position heating systems;the maximum temperature increment of the bridge deck surface obtained by the external heating system is 0.46 times that obtained by the internal heating system;the maximum thermally induced stress caused by the external heating is 20.4%of the concrete strength(19.1 MPa),which is much higher than that caused by the internal heating under the same heating powers.The thermal efficiencies of the external and internal heating systems are approximately 24.4%and 47.9%,respectively.Under the same constant inlet temperatures,the temperature increment of the bridge deck caused by the external heating is 20.4%of that of the internal heating.

Design and evaluation of UHPP steel bridge deck pavement for high-temperature and rainy regions

To enhance the serviceability of steel bridge deck pavement(SBDP)in high-temperature and rainy regions,a concept of rigid bottom and flexible top was summarized using engineering practices,which led to the proposal of a three-layer ultra-high-performance pavement(UHPP).The high-temperature rutting resistance and wet-weather skid resistance of UHPP were evaluated through composite structure tests.The internal temperature distribution within the pavement under typical high-temperature conditions was analyzed using a temperature field model.Additionally,a temperature-stress coupling model was employed to investigate the key load positions and stress response characteristics of the UHPP.The results indicate that compared with the traditional guss asphalt+stone mastic asphalt structure,the dynamic stability of the UHPP composite structure can be improved by up to 20.4%.Even under cyclic loading,UHPP still exhibits superior surface skid resistance compared to two traditional SBDPs.The thickness composition of UHPP significantly impacts its rutting resistance and skid resistance.UHPP exhibits relatively low tensile stress but higher shear stress levels,with the highest shear stress occurring between the UHPP and the steel plate.This suggests that the potential risk of damage for UHPP primarily lies within the interlayer of the pavement.Based on engineering examples,introducing interlayer gravel and optimizing the amount of bonding layer are advised to ensure that UHPP possesses sufficient interlayer shear resistance.

Design and Engineering of Urban Interchange Ramp Bridge Structure

This paper analyzes the structural design of an urban interchange ramp bridge from four aspects,which are the superstructure,pier structure,foundation structure,and deck structure design to summarize the structural design ideas of this urban interchange ramp bridge,which can be used as a reference for future construction of the same bridge.

Revisiting aerodynamic admittance functions of bridge decks

A framework was proposed to identify a comprehensive set of aerodynamic admittance functions for bridge decks. The contributions of the cross-spectra between longitudinal and vertical wind velocity components and between turbulence components and gust-induced forces were embedded in the identification procedure. To facilitate application of the identified functions in engineering practice, the concept of an equivalent aerodynamic admittance function was introduced and numerically validated. The equivalent aerodynamic admittance functions of a set of streamlined and bluff cross sections were identified experimentally in a wind tunnel. Buffeting analysis of a bridge deck was carried out and the response predicted using the identified aerodynamic admittance functions compared well with the measured response. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was performed to delineate the influence of aerodynamic and structural parameters on the buffeting response, thereby demonstrating the significance of the proposed identification framework.

A systematic review of steel bridge deck pavement in China

As an important part of steel bridge deck,the engineering quality and service condition of steel bridge deck pavement(SBDP)directly affects the capacity and operational efficiency of the bridge.This paper reviews the history of the development of SBDP in China over the past 20 years from the exploration stage,rapid development stage and prosperity stage.The development and application of SBDP at different stages are discussed in terms of materials,structure,design,performance evaluation,maintenance and rehabilitation,respectively.The advantages and disadvantages of different pavement materials and structures,and the application of different research methods are summarized.The review shows that the improvement of pavement materials and structures and the development of new materials should be further studied on the multi-scale to enhance the durability of pavement materials,so as to extend the service life of pavements.The design method of SBDP related to the synergistic effect of vehicle,pavement and bridge should be established,and the design concept and method standard of rigid base pavement structure should be improved and formulate a complete design standard.In addition,multi-disease intelligent identification system and equipment should be studied to track the entire course of disease development in real time.And it is necessary to develop appropriate algorithms to select and classify the complex data of disease and maintenance history.

Design Technology of Continuous Beam-Arch Combination Bridges

In this paper,a research was conducted on the design technology of continuous beam-arch composite bridges.A brief introduction is given on the of continuous beam-arch composite bridges,its basic mechanical characteristics is analyzed,and three aspects of design technology is studied,which are rise-span ratio,stiffness ratio,and bridge deck cracking.This article acts as a reference for relevant design units in China to improve the design of continuous beam-arch combination bridges.

Interfacial behaviors of epoxy asphalt surfacing on steel decks

A model for predicting the interface behavior of epoxy asphalt and steel composite beam under negative bending is developed incorporating partial interaction theory. Interfacial slips between the steel deck and the epoxy asphalt surfacing are included in the model with a new parameter of membrane stiffness. A series of analytical equations based on this model are derived to calculate slip and strain at the interface. Also, a numerical procedure for calculating the load responses of simply supported composite beams with concentrated force at the mid-span is established and verified with two samples. Characters of slip and strain at the interface, sensitivities of tensile stress and interface shear stress with material parameters are studied. It can be concluded that interfacial effects decrease the bending stiffness of the composite; hard and stiff bonding material is better for asphalt surfacing layer working at normal to low temperatures, and the damage of the asphalt surfacing layer will be accelerated with the damage accumulation of the bonding coat.

Finite element simulation and optimal analysis of surfacing on steel orthotropic bridge deck

To analyze the stress state of steel orthotropic deck pavement and provide reference for the design of the overlay, the inner stress state and strain distribution of surfacing under the load of the deformation of the whole bridge structure and tyre load are analyzed by the finite element method of submodeling. Influence of surfacing modulus on the strain state of the overlay is analyzed for the purpose of the optimal design of the overlay structure. Analysis results show that the deformation of the whole bridge structure has no evident influence on the stress state of the overlay. The key factor of the overlay design is the transverse tensile strain in the overlay above the upper edge of web plate of rib. The stress state of the overlay is influenced evidently by the modulus of rigidity transform overlay. And the stress state of the overlay can be optimized and lowered by increasing the modulus and thickness of rigidity transform overlay, The fatigue test has been done to evaluate the fatigue performance and modulus of different deck pavement materials such as epoxy asphalt, SBS modified asphalt, rosphalt asphalt which can provide reference for deck pavement structure design.

Mechanical properties of epoxy asphalt mixture pavement with lightweight aggregate applied on bascule bridge

The high temperature anti-rutting performance,water stability and low temperature bending property of epoxy asphalt mixture with 0%,15%,25%,40%,and 70% granulated and circular lightweight aggregates by weight are tested,respectively.The dynamic responses under the vehicle load and in the opening process are analyzed to obtain the mechanical responses of pavements by using the finite element method.The complicated structure including a steel deck and a waterproof adhesive layer is made to verify the bond strength of the 2451-type epoxy asphalt binder.Research results show that the epoxy asphalt mixtures with lightweight aggregate replacement percentages from 0% to 70% all satisfy the requirements for steel bridge pavements.The epoxy asphalt mixture with a 70% circular lightweight aggregate replacement percentage is recommended because of its smaller density when compared with other epoxy asphalt mixtures.The shear stress increases with the increase in the opening angle and achieves its maximum at the maximum opening angle of 85°.Test results show that the Tianjin Bascule Bridge can be used for first opening after a 3 d pavement conditioning.

Enhanced air-coupled impact echo technique by phase analysis of signals from multiple sensors

This paper presents an air-coupled impact echo(IE)technique that relies on the phase spectrum of the collected data to find the frequencies corresponding to the reflections from delaminations.The proposed technique takes advantage of the fact that the IE compression wave is not a propagating wave,but it is the 1st order symmetrical(S1)mode Lamb wave at zero group velocity(S1-ZGV).Therefore,it searches the phase spectra of the data collected by multiple sensors to locate the frequency corresponding to the lowest phase difference.As a result,the technique reduces the effect of propagating waves,including the direct acoustic wave and ambient noise.It is named the Constant Phase IE(CPIE).The performance of the CPIE is experimentally compared with the regular amplitude spectrum-based IE technique and two other multisensor IE techniques.The CPIE shows a performance advantage,especially in a noisy environment.

Cross-spectral recognition method of bridge deck aerodynamic admittance function

This study proposes a new identification algorithm about the admittance function, which can estimate the full set of six aerodynamic admittance functions considering cross power spectral density functions about the forces and the turbulence components. The method was first numerically validated through Monte Carlo simulations, and then adopted to estimate the aerodynamic admittance of a streamlined bridge deck. The identification method was further validated through a comparison between the numerical calculation and wind tunnel tests on a moving bridge section. © 2015, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Bridge Pressure Flow Scour at Clear Water Threshold Condition

Bridge pressure flow scour at clear water threshold condition is studied theoretically and experimentally.The flume experiments reveal that the measured scour profiles under a bridge are more or less 2-dimensional;all the measured scour profiles can be described by two similarity equations,where the horizontal distance is scaled by the deck width while the local scour by the maximum scour depth;the maximum scour position is located just under the bridge about 15% deck width from the downstream deck edge;the scour begins at about one deck width upstream the bridge while the deposition occurs at about 2.5 deck widths downstream the bridge;and the maximum scour depth decreases with increas-ing sediment size,but increases with deck inundation.The theoretical analysis shows that:bridge scour can be divided into three cases,i.e.downstream unsubmerged,partially submerged,and totally submerged.For downstream unsubmerged flows,the maximum bridge scour depth is an open-channel problem where the conventional methods in terms of critical velocity or bed shear stress can be applied;for partially and totally submerged flows,the equilibrium maximum scour depth can be described by a scour and an inundation similarity number,which has been confirmed by experiments with two decks and two sediment sizes.For application,a design and field evaluation procedure with examples is presented,including the maximum scour depth and scour profile.

Fatigue Performance Evaluation for Welded Details in Orthotropic Steel Deck Bridges Using Multi-Scale Finite Element Method

In order to study the fatigue properties of rib-to-deck welded connection and rib-to-rib welded connection in orthotropic steel bridge decks,a multi-scale finite element model was set up to analyze the stress distribution characteristics and the load test was conducted on the Taizhou Yangtze River Bridge.Comparing the vehicle test results with the muli-scale finite element model results to verify the accuracy of the finite element simulation for the stress response of two welded details.The results indicated that The stress at the rib-to-deck welded connection and the rib-to-rib welded connection are the bending stress and the membrane stress,respectively;the stress response of the two welded connection has strong local characteristics;the lateral stress influence line of the two welded connection is relatively short and the length of the lateral stress influence line is greatly affected by the longitudinal ribs;increasing the thickness of the roof and longitudinal ribs can reduce the stress response and improve the stress performance of the heavy lanes.For the two welded details,the fatigue damage increment of the ordinary lane is greater than the heavy lane.The thickened roof and longitudinal ribs at the position of the heavy lane still cannot balance the fatigue damage caused by the heavy truck.Therefore,it is necessary to strictly control the fatigue effect of overloaded vehicles on steel box girders.

Emerging Timber Bridge Program to Sao Paulo State： A Five-Year Report

The Emerging Timber Bridge Program to Sao Paulo state （ETBPSP） was started in 2001 with the main objective of research and development of new technologies for timber bridge construction. After five years of this program eleven demonstration timber bridges were constructed in the State of Sao Paulo, whereas eight composite timber/concrete bridges, one log timber girder bridge with transversal sawn deck, one transversal lumber prestressed timber bridge and one transversal cellular plywood box prestressed bridge. As a final objective is the divulgation of the constructive and structural systems in extension courses to municipal engineers and in a complete publication of timber bridges project plans with the different structural and constructional systems. This paper describes the goals of the MTBPSP, the accomplishments of the program in the first five years, the information sheet of the bridges and outlines some obstacles and opportunities.

Design and laboratory evaluation of fog-sealed chip seal on epoxy asphalt pavement for steel bridge deck

In order to improve the surface performace of epoxy asphalt pavement （EAP） for steel bridge deck, an epoxy asphalt chip seal （ ECS） covered by a cationic emulsified asphalt fog seal （i. e., fog-sealed chip seal） isproposed and a laboratory study is conducted to design and evaluate te fog-sealed chip seal. First, the evaluation indices and methods of te chip seal on steel bridge deck pavement were proposed. Secondly, the worst pavement conditions during te maintenance time were simulated by te small traffic load simulation system MMLS3 and the short-term aging test for minimizing the failure probability of chip seal. Finally, the design parameters of fog-sealed chip seal were determined by the experimental analysis and the performance of the designed fog-sealed chip seal was evaluated in thelaboratory. Results indicate that the proposed simulation method of pavement conditions is effective and the maximal load repetitions on the EAPslab specimen are approximately 925 300 times. Moreover, the designed fog-sealedchip sealcan provide a dense surface with sufficient skid resistance,aggregate-asphalt aahesive performance and interlayer shearing resistance.

Numerical investigation of temperature gradient-induced thermal stress for steel–concrete composite bridge deck in suspension bridges

A3D finite element model(FEM)with realistic field measurements of temperature distributions is proposed to investigate the thermal stress variation in the steel–concrete composite bridge deck system.First,a brief literaturereview indicates that traditional thermal stress calculation in suspension bridges is based on the2D plane structure with simplified temperature profiles on bridges.Thus,a3D FEM is proposed for accurate stress analysis.The focus is on the incorporation of full field arbitrary temperature profile for the stress analysis.Following this,the effect of realistic temperature distribution on the structure is investigated in detail and an example using field measurements of Aizhai Bridge is integrated with the proposed3D FEM model.Parametric studies are used to illustrate the effect of different parameters on the thermal stress distribution in the bridge structure.Next,the discussion and comparison of the proposed methodology and simplified calculation method in the standard is given.The calculation difference and their potential impact on the structure are shown in detail.Finally,some conclusions and recommendations for future bridge analysis and design are given based on the proposed study.

Wind-induced vibration control of bridges using liquid column damper

The potential application of tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) for suppressing wind-induced vibration of long span bridges is explored in this paper.By installing the TLCD in the bridge deck,a mathematical model for the bridge-TLCD system is established.The governing equations of the system are developed by considering all three displacement components of the deck in vertical,lateral,and torsional vibrations,in which the interactions between the bridge deck,the TLCD,the aeroelastic forces,and the aerodynamic forces are fully reflected.Both buffeting and flutter analyses are carried out.The buffeting analysis is performed through random vibration approach,and a critical flutter condition is identified from flutter analysis.A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the control effectiveness of the damper and it is shown that the TLCD can be an effective device for suppressing wind-induced vibration of long span bridges,either for reducing the buffeting response or increasing the critical flutter wind velocity of the bridge.