Abstract
Monitoring infrastructures is becoming an important and challenging issue. In Italy, the heritage consists of more than 60,000 bridges, which need to be inspected and detected in order to guarantee their strength and durability function during nominal lifespan. In this paper, a non-destructive survey methodology for study concrete bridges surface deterioration and viaducts is presented. Terrestrial and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry has been used for visual inspection of a standard concrete overpass in L’Aquila (Italy). The obtained orthomosaic has been processed by means of Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) to identify and classify deteriorated areas and decay forms. The results show a satisfactory identification and survey of deteriorated areas. It has also been possible to quantify metric information, such as width and length of cracks and extension of weathered areas. This allows to perform easy and fast periodic inspections over time in order to evaluate the evolution of deterioration and plan urgency of preservation or maintenance measures.
Highlights
In Europe, one of the most challenging problems is ageing infrastructure
The overall structure presents a good state of conservation; its deterioration is mainly due to decay and weathering related to ageing phenomena; in particular concrete surfaces are affect by: cracks, map cracking, spalling, washout, exposed rebars, rock pockets, scaling, dusting, corrosion of rebars, honeycombs, efflorescences, leaching, detachments and biological colonization
88.08% of the detected surface total area is composed by non-deteriorated concrete; the associated spalling area is approximately 3.06%; the formwork footprint constitutes a very small portion, which amounts to 0.42%; the area of the cracks occupies about 3.86% of the surface
Summary
In Europe, one of the most challenging problems is ageing infrastructure. A lot of countries are working to study technical ways to survey and monitor bridges, viaducts and highways. 88.08% of the detected surface total area is composed by non-deteriorated concrete; the associated spalling area is approximately 3.06% (considering 2.65% of spalling plus 0.41% of exposed rebars); the formwork footprint constitutes a very small portion, which amounts to 0.42%; the area of the cracks occupies about 3.86% of the surface. This value must be further investigated, since part of it has been associated with lower rock pockets (lower part of Figure 11). With quantifiable and reliable imagery, the UAV Photogrammetry and OBIA developed methodology can potentially supplement and even substitute visual inspection, at least as first analysis of a large dataset
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