Electrical Resistivity and Induced Polarization Imaging for Unknown Bridge Foundations
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 5
Abstract
Scour is the removal of soil around bridge supports due to water flow during floods. One of the major problems with scour is in the case of unknown bridge foundations. Bridges with unknown foundations are listed in the National Bridge Inventory as having insufficient data for scour evaluation, particularly regarding foundation depth. Knowing the foundation depth is a critical component of scour risk assessment. Multiple nondestructive testing methods are currently used to determine the depth of unknown bridge foundations; however, many methods are hindered by the type of substructure. An advantage of using near-surface geophysical methods, specifically electrical resistivity (ER) and induced polarization (IP) imaging, is that the inversion processes yield subsurface images, thereby allowing the depth and, to a lesser extent, the foundation type to be seen. Unlike a majority of existing testing methods, ER and IP imaging do not physically use the structure so they are applicable to simple and complex foundation structures. In this paper, results of ER and IP imaging tests performed at the Texas A&M University National Geotechnical Experimentation Site, on a bridge with known foundation depth and a bridge with unknown foundation depth are presented. The applicability of ER and IP imaging to determine substructure characteristics for unknown bridge foundations is also discussed. A probability of nonexceedance estimate for predictions using IP is given to quantify IP imaging reliability.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Southwest Region University Transportation Center (SWUTC) for financing the research project. The help of Anthony Garcia with TxDOT for gathering bridge and soil information is greatly appreciated.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 5 • May 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 1, 2013
Accepted: Nov 19, 2014
Published online: Jan 19, 2015
Published in print: May 1, 2015
Discussion open until: Jun 19, 2015
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