Maroni Andrea, Tubaldi Enrico, Ferguson Neil, Tarantino Alessandro, McDonald Hazel, Zonta Daniele
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK.
Transport Scotland, Glasgow G4 0HF, UK.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Jul 23;20(15):4096. doi: 10.3390/s20154096.
Scour jeopardises the safety of many civil engineering structures with foundations in riverbeds and it is the leading cause for the collapse of bridges worldwide. Current approaches for bridge scour risk management rely mainly on visual inspections, which provide unreliable estimates of scour and of its effects, also considering the difficulties in visually monitoring the riverbed erosion around submerged foundations. Thus, there is a need to introduce systems capable of continuously monitoring the evolution of scour at bridge foundations, even during extreme flood events. This paper illustrates the development and deployment of a scour monitoring system consisting of smart probes equipped with electromagnetic sensors. This is the first application of this type of sensing probes to a real case-study for continuous scour monitoring. Designed to observe changes in the permittivity of the medium around bridge foundations, the sensors allow for detection of scour depths and the assessment of whether the scour hole has been refilled. The monitoring system was installed on the A76 200 Bridge in New Cumnock (S-W Scotland) and has provided a continuous recording of the scour for nearly two years. The scour data registered after a peak flood event (validated against actual measurements of scour during a bridge inspection) show the potential of the technology in providing continuous scour measures, even during extreme flood events, thus avoiding the deployment of divers for underwater examination.
冲刷会危及许多建于河床之上的土木工程结构的安全，是全球桥梁倒塌的主要原因。当前桥梁冲刷风险管理方法主要依赖目视检查，这种方法对冲刷及其影响的估计并不可靠，而且在目视监测水下基础周围河床侵蚀情况时也存在困难。因此，需要引入能够持续监测桥梁基础冲刷演变情况的系统，即使在极端洪水事件期间也能如此。本文阐述了一种由配备电磁传感器的智能探头组成的冲刷监测系统的开发与部署情况。这是此类传感探头首次应用于实际案例研究以进行连续冲刷监测。这些传感器旨在观测桥梁基础周围介质的介电常数变化，能够检测冲刷深度并评估冲刷坑是否已被填满。该监测系统安装在新卡姆诺克（苏格兰西南部）的A76 200号桥上，已经持续记录冲刷情况近两年。一次洪水峰值事件后记录的冲刷数据（与桥梁检查期间的实际冲刷测量结果进行了验证）显示了该技术在提供连续冲刷测量方面的潜力，即使在极端洪水事件期间也是如此，从而避免了派遣潜水员进行水下检查。
