Health Monitoring of Chloride Attack in Concrete Bridges

Abstract

Development of a health monitoring system in situ is so important as to properly maintain concrete structures under severe salt attack. Research Association for Infrastructure Monitoring System (RAIMS) is engaged in research on health monitoring of bridges and thus experiments on concrete bridges under the severe environment are widely conducted. As a preliminary research on an applicability of the health monitoring system, sensing devices for early detection of chloride penetration and rebar corrosion have been applied to a prestressed concrete (PC) bridge in service. Three sensing devices of a corrosion sensor, a reference electrode and an embedded sensor are placed in the bridge. So far, monitoring of the corrosion degree due to chloride attack has been continuously conducted for more than two years. Further, a simple device for easy-installation in a local bridge is proposed.