Study of concrete drilling for automated non-destructive evaluation and rehabilitation system for bridge decks

Abstract

Robotic drilling is the basic process for the non-destructive rehabilitation (NDR) system in the Automated Non-destructive Evaluation and Rehabilitation System (ANDERS) for bridge decks. In this paper, we present a study and testing of a concrete drilling process that is used for robotic drilling process for bridge decks repair. We first review the ANDERS and NDR design. Then we present the experimental setup for the drilling process study. A set of testing experiments are performed considering drilling process parameters such as drill bit size, drill rotating speed, drill thrust force and types of concrete composites. Based on the experiments and analysis, we identify and find that the optimal set of drilling process parameters for the ANDERS application is 1/4-inch bit size, drill rotational speed of 1500 rpm and thrust force around 35 lbs. We also demonstrate that the monitoring of drill feeding displacement and thrust force cannot be used to detect and identify the cracks in bridge decks.