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Tomorrow's Technology Today
Optical Sensing Solutions, IoT
Arsenal Bridge
ERDC’s Structural Health Monitoring System earns Fiatech CETI Award
About The Bridge
The Arsenal Bridge, also known as the Government Bridge, crosses the Mississippi river connecting Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. The bridge has two levels. The top level has a dual railway and the lower is a two-lane roadway. The total length of the bridge is 1,608 feet long. To accommodate for river traffic it has a pivoting swing section. The bridge has been operational since 1896 and is the fourth in succession at this location. The customer, Concurrent Technologies Corporations chose ChM4 Inc. as the Systems Integrator to install the project with funding from the DOD and Corp of Engineers. Once project was completed remote monitoring support contracts of the system continued.
Objective
ChM4 SHM monitoring the integrity and behavior of the bridge structure using IntelliOptics® software for understanding the effects due to high traffic, heavy car traffic/ trucks, freight trains and bridge rotation to allow barges to navigate through lock and Dam 15 that could cause possible damage & fatigue. The system also is a long term preventative maintenance system due to the age of the bridge and rebuilding of bridge turret or other areas when necessary. The system installed consisted of optical Strain sensors, rosettes on pivot pins, accelerometers, temperature sensors and tilts at key locations. AE sensor system was installed to detect and locate cracks to compare this data to optical sensors and how optics can detect the crack occurrences. A corrosion system was also installed to evaluate corrosion effects and using corrosion coupons to verify their performance. At top of the bridge is a control house to rotate bridge working with lock masters traffic. All SHM equipment is located in the attic of the control house.
Sensor System Map and 3D Model
ChM4 designed the system to have only one DAU unit (1) Luna Interrogator, (40) os3100 strain, (30) os4350 temperature, (30) os7500 accelerometers and (2) FBG Korea tiltmeter optical sensors. The system included A&E sensors and corrosion systems. ChM4 installed the shown system in 6 weeks. The system was hosted on the cloud allowing access from any location with proper credentials. A simple model built used for pre-assemble of sensor system, location approvals and the model used in the user interface software IntelliOptics®.
The Arsenal Government Bridge carries the heaviest loads for freight train traffic across the Mississippi in the DavenPort area and military equipment manufactured on Rock Island.
The Arsenal Government Bridge corrosion system example an experimental system developed by Queens University using corrosion racks for comparison.
IntelliOptics® structural health monitoring software, developed by ChM4 is a powerful, user-friendly interface that collects data from multiple sensor types and displays status information via one centralized program. Please Click on each page for a closer view. Also see our software section for more information and our Intelli-Insight® predictive analysis module for maintenance of critical structures.
IntelliOptics® structural health monitoring software linked AE sensor software to a common SQL data base for direct comparison to optical sensors mounted in the same locations.
AE Sensor System Map
IntelliOptics® structural health monitoring software linked AE sensor software to a common SQL data base for direct comparison to optical sensors mounted in similar locations.
ChM4 structural health monitoring installation pictures of FBG optical sensors, corrosion, AE acoustical system, and control panel.