ABSTRACT
Corrosion at beam ends is one of the most widespread causes of damage in steel bridges. An accurate measurement of the level of section loss is critical for estimating the residual bearing capacity of corrosion damaged bridge beams. Current evaluation methods are labor-intensive and subjective as they rely heavily on basic measurement tools and the judgment of inspectors. Structured-light 3D scanning technology offers significant potential for application in the corrosion damage assessment on steel bridge beams. 3D scanners may provide a comprehensive and accurate representation of the severity of section loss at beam ends. The complete beam geometry including the full section loss profile can then be input into finite element software to obtain an accurate estimate of residual capacity. In this study, a structured-light scanner was used to capture geometric information from a large-scale steel beam with simulated corrosion damage. The beam was then experimentally tested to determine the residual bearing capacity. The scan data was used to generate a 3D model, which was then imported into LS-DYNA, a finite element software, to evaluate the residual capacity analytically. The results from the finite element model using the full corrosion profile were compared to the experimental results. An additional finite element model was generated using a uniform section loss to compare the accuracy of different approaches in estimating the residual bearing capacity. This paper gives an overview of the experimental test, discusses the scanning process and finite element model generation, and compares the results from the analytical and experimental studies. The ease of use of the scanner along with the promising analysis results show the potential of this technology for rapid adoption for bridge inspection. It is expected that the material presented in this paper will provide an additional tool for bridge owners and engineers to evaluate the remaining capacity of corrosion damaged bridge beams.
