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How the officials from PWD, Aurangabad used Livehooah to increase the life of their bridge by 10 more years?
Introduction: – The 30+679 bridge (12 spans with 7.86m each span length) is situated in the outskirts of Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. It is a reinforced concrete deck girder bridge that has a deck simply supported over the piers. The bridge is in the middle of its design life, but the government officials needed to know if the original design philosophy is still relevant for today’s traffic or not.
Challenge: – Traffic congestion on urban roads have increased substantially, therefore increasing the strain on highways and bridges. As well, the major bridges built around the country were from the British era, hence there remains doubt if they can cope up with the increasing load. Livehooah took the challenge to test the ageing bridge and analyze if it could be retained.

Sensors installed

  • Strain gauge: – Strain gauges were strategically placed on the points of probable failure and places where the maximum bending moment is expected.
  • Temperature sensor: – Inbuilt with a strain gauge, temperature sensors were installed to measure ambient temperature and its effect on the expansion and contraction of the structural member.

The truck experiment

The bridge had to be put under extra strain to check if there is an escalation in strain for both deck and pier. For this, two loaded trucks (4 axle-trailer) were placed in such a way that strain could be maximized keeping boundary condition (simply supported) of the deck in mind.
The loaded trucks were kept stationary for one hour in one lane, where real-time readings were captured, and another lane was open to the general public. As a result, Livehooah gained a better understanding of strain fluctuations and their correlation with temperature under heavy load conditions.
The real-time data showed minor strain fluctuations which regained the baseline values once the experiment was completed. Hence, the bridge showed no major fluctuations and was considered safe to use in extreme conditions.
BRIDGE-DRAWING-AURANGABAD-Livehooah

Observation & Solutions

Rather than just providing the data, Livehooah’s machine learning and Al powered system analyzed and offered real-time suggestions that could be immediately implemented to extend the bridge’s lifespan.

  1. For the period of one month of monitoring and with 4 strain gauges, it was observed that the structural performance of the deck and pier did not deviate extensively from the baseline values observed at the start of the monitoring period.
  2. Analyzing the strain values for the monitored locations, it was considered safe to continue using the bridge.
  3. However, it may be necessary to perform minor preventive repairs to extend the durability and structural performance of the bridge

1 Comment

  1. admin

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