New Approaches in Diagnosis of Reinforcement of Pre-stressed/Post-tensioned Concrete Bridge Beams

Project presentation

The project aimed to design and validate new approaches for diagnosing the condition of reinforcement in prestressed concrete bridge girders with regard to corrosion damage. The research focused on experimentally evaluating nonlinear ultrasonic spectroscopy and metal magnetic memory methods for assessing the condition of reinforcement along its entire length.

Based on laboratory measurements combining new and existing diagnostic methods, the project verified the correlation between measured values, the progression of reinforcement corrosion and the condition of prestressed girders. The new approach was subsequently validated on bridge structures. The main outcome was a certified methodology for assessing the condition of reinforcement in prestressed bridge girders, approved by the Ministry of Transport.

The project was coordinated by the Transport Research Centre. Project partners included the Czech Technical University in Prague – Klokner Institute, PREDITEST Ltd. and Brno University of Technology – Faculty of Civil Engineering.

More information about the project