Realtime Monitoring of Bridge Scour Using Remote Monitoring Technology

The research performed in this project focuses on the application of instruments including accelerometers and tiltmeters to monitor bridge scour. First, two large scale laboratory experiments were performed. One experiment is the simulation of a bridge with a shallow foundation, and the other is the simulation of a bridge with a deep foundation. A series of instruments were installed on the simulated bridge to monitor the performance of the bridge due to scour. Both the shallow foundation experiment and deep foundation experiment show that accelerometers and tiltmeters can be used in scour monitoring events since both give warning of bridge failure successfully. Subsequently, two individual monitoring systems were designed and installed on two bridges: US59 over Guadalupe River Bridge and SH80 over San Antonio River Bridge in Texas. Realtime data are collected and transmitted to a computer server at Texas A&M University, which can be accessed remotely. The instrumentation on the two bridges does not show great hope of application of accelerometers to monitor bridge scour because of a lack of sufficient excitation from traffic. Another issue with the accelerometers is the high power consumption during the transmission of accelerometer data, which cannot be satisfied with a typical solar panel and battery. Tiltmeters can provide the integral behavior of the bridge, and therefore are very useful devices for scour monitoring. Guidelines and protocols for scour monitoring based on the US59 over Guadalupe River Bridge and the SH80 over San Antonio River Bridge are provided in the study.