Feasibility Test of Low-Cost Sonar Sensors for Bridge Scour Monitoring

Author(s):  
Touhid Ahamed ◽  
Jaeho Shim ◽  
Hongki Jo ◽  
Guohong Duan
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eftychia Koursari ◽  
Stuart Wallace ◽  
Panagiotis Michalis ◽  
Manousos Valyrakis ◽  
Scott Paton

<p>Scour is a major cause of bridge collapse worldwide.</p><p>Climate change has resulted in flood events increasing both in frequency and in magnitude. Climate change, together with the current uncertainty about maximum scour depth around structures, make scour and other hydraulic actions some of the most important challenges for engineering going forward.</p><p>This study offers a preliminary assessment of bridge scour monitoring methods considering scour as a dynamical earth surface shaping process, and discusses how these methods can be used to improve predictive models for bridge scour depth.</p><p>Current methods used to monitor scour are mostly reactive. A vast amount of research has been carried out, aiming towards the implementation of various approaches to assist in the monitoring of scour; however, most methods used are either still reactive, or extremely costly and therefore not practical to be used for small to medium scale structures. This study aims in addressing major challenges faced by establishing a new, innovative framework for the monitoring of scour, while considering relevant approaches in literature. It discusses the development of an innovative, sustainable and low-cost framework, that can be used for small to medium scale structures. This will ensure a proactive response in the event of catastrophic scour occurring, safeguarding infrastructure and the travelling public.</p>


Author(s):  
Negin Yousefpour ◽  
Steve Downie ◽  
Steve Walker ◽  
Nathan Perkins ◽  
Hristo Dikanski

Bridge scour is a challenge throughout the U.S.A. and other countries. Despite the scale of the issue, there is still a substantial lack of robust methods for scour prediction to support reliable, risk-based management and decision making. Throughout the past decade, the use of real-time scour monitoring systems has gained increasing interest among state departments of transportation across the U.S.A. This paper introduces three distinct methodologies for scour prediction using advanced artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) techniques based on real-time scour monitoring data. Scour monitoring data included the riverbed and river stage elevation time series at bridge piers gathered from various sources. Deep learning algorithms showed promising in prediction of bed elevation and water level variations as early as a week in advance. Ensemble neural networks proved successful in the predicting the maximum upcoming scour depth, using the observed sensor data at the onset of a scour episode, and based on bridge pier, flow and riverbed characteristics. In addition, two of the common empirical scour models were calibrated based on the observed sensor data using the Bayesian inference method, showing significant improvement in prediction accuracy. Overall, this paper introduces a novel approach for scour risk management by integrating emerging AI/ML algorithms with real-time monitoring systems for early scour forecast.


The railway system is one of the most widely used modes of transportation due to its low cost. To keep the railway system running smoothly, continuous track monitoring is needed. These days, the railway system is manually supervised. As a result, there is a greater risk of disasters, such as fatalities, occurring as a result of human error while monitoring. The main problem with manual system monitoring is that it takes a long time to process all of the necessary data. Since railway tracks are built over thousands of miles, it is virtually impossible to manually control the device over such a longdistance. At railway crossings, a lot of accidents happen. Crossing gates are usually opened and closed after receiving direct input from the station. If there is a delay in obtaining information from the station, there is a risk of swearing incidents. The main goal of this research is to simplify and protect the railway system. The proposed system employs Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) detectors for automatic side road crossing protection. Any type of breakage, as well as vibration, can be efficiently detected with a higher degree of precision using Light Dependent Resistor (LRR) and laser detectors. In the event of an unexpected situation, such as an accident, the GSM module will begin communicating via message with the nearest control room for assistance. Sonar sensors are often used for obstacle avoidance when something unexpectedly appears in front of the train. The Internet of Things (IoT) has been added to the system to allow it to be monitored from anywhere in the sphere. The Arduino UNO is a microcontroller that serves as the system's backbone. The framework has the potential to be extremely beneficial to our country's railway economic growth.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirosław Skibniewski ◽  
Hui-Ping Tserng ◽  
Shen-Haw Ju ◽  
Chung-Wei Feng ◽  
Chih-Ting Lin ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
pp. 147592172095657
Author(s):  
Andrea Maroni ◽  
Enrico Tubaldi ◽  
Dimitri V Val ◽  
Hazel McDonald ◽  
Daniele Zonta

Flood-induced scour is among the most common external causes of bridge failures worldwide. In the United States, scour is the cause of 22 bridges fails every year, whereas in the UK, it contributed significantly to the 138 collapses of bridges in the last century. Scour assessments are currently based on visual inspections, which are time-consuming and expensive. Nowadays, sensor and communication technologies offer the possibility to assess in real time the scour depth at critical bridge locations; yet, monitoring an entire infrastructure network is not economically feasible. A way to overcome this limitation is to instal scour monitoring systems at critical bridge locations, and then extend the piece of information gained to the other assets exploiting the correlations present in the system. In this article, we propose a scour hazard model for road and railway bridge scour management that utilises information from a limited number of scour monitoring systems to achieve a more confined estimate of the scour risk for a bridge network. A Bayesian network is used to describe the conditional dependencies among the involved random variables and to update the scour depth distribution using data from monitoring of scour and river flow characteristics. This study constitutes the first application of Bayesian networks to bridge scour risk assessment. The proposed probabilistic framework is applied to a case study consisting of several road bridges in Scotland. The bridges cross the same river, and only one of them is instrumented with a scour monitoring system. It is demonstrated how the Bayesian network approach allows to significantly reduce the uncertainty in the scour depth at unmonitored bridges.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 04020098
Author(s):  
Fae Azhari ◽  
Kenneth J. Loh

Author(s):  
P. F. Lagasse ◽  
E. V. Richardson ◽  
J. D. Schall

Research was conducted to develop, test, and evaluate fixed instrumentation that would be both technically and economically feasible for use in measuring maximum scour depth at bridge piers and abutments. A variety of scour-measuring and scour-monitoring methods were tested in the laboratory and in the field, including sounding rods, driven-rod devices, sonic depth finders (fathometers), and buried devices. Two fixed-instrument systems, a low-cost fathometer, and a magnetic slidingcollar device using a driven-rod approach, showed significant promise during initial testing. The project concentrated on installing and testing these two instrument systems under a wide range of bridge substructure geometry, flow, and geomorphic conditions. Both instrument systems met all of the mandatory and many of the desirable criteria established for this research. Cooperative efforts with state highway agencies proved that both systems can be installed with equipment and technical skills normally available to district-level department of transportation maintenance and inspection personnel. The project also provided installation, operation, and fabrication manuals for the low-cost sonic instrument system and magnetic sliding-collar devices.


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