Bridge Scour Detection using Vehicle Acceleration Measurements

Bridge scour is a serious issue concerning bridge condition and can have adverse consequences if undetected. It is the most common cause of bridge collapse today. One method of assessing the issue is through the use of visual inspections but this has drawback in that often an underwater inspection may have to be carried out. This makes it an expensive solution. Human objectivity leads to inconsistencies in the approach also and this is an issue. A sensor-based approach is a suitable alternative due to these reasons. The use of vehicle acceleration measurements to detect scour is analysed in this paper. The continuous wavelet transform is used to decompose the accelerations into time and frequency information. It is found that the location of the pier under which the scour is present can be identified using this method.