Current research in bridge engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington is addressing a wide series of critical problems associated with an old steel girder bridge with a severely deteriorated concrete deck. Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and Diagnostic Load Test will be performed on the bridge to evaluate the performance of the bridge. The bridge will be instrumented for the Diagnostic Load Test and the result obtained from the test will be used to determine the bridge load rating as well as the deck load rating. A tentative instrumentation plan for the Diagnostic Load Test of the bridge is shown in below. Numerical analysis of the bridge will also be conducted using the nonlinear finite element software ABAQUS and the result from the Diagnostic Load Test will be compared. Finally, a suitable rehabilitation method for increasing the live load carrying capacity of the delaminated deck will be proposed.

IE system will be used to determine the delamination condition and thickness of concrete structural members when voids, honeycombs, and/or cracks are suspected. The device creates an impact at a spot on the surface, and then records and analyzes the echo.

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