The project aims at mimicking the degradation mechanisms that exist on real bridge cables with the use of an environmental chamber that will be built around the cable mock-up. It is of paramount importance to point out that the entire cable cross-section is subject to load. Therefore there is full interaction between the cable load and surrounding degrading environment-induced in the environmental chamber. This will provide realistic and providing sound health monitoring for ongoing degradation in bridge cables utilizing sensor technologies.
The cable mock-up is made of the same high strength steel 5-mm wire that was used for the cables of the Self-Anchored San Francisco-Oakland Bay Suspension Bridge in California. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation.
The project includes the following:
- Construction of a bridge cable mock-up
- Instrumentation of the cable mock-up with different sensors to measure humidity, temperature, corrosion rate, wire breaks and strain degradation
- Construction of environmental chamber around the cable
- Accelerated degradation of the cable mock-up within the environmental chamber
- Comparison of degradation data gathered by sensors and the actual physical damage on wires
- Study of the dehumidification of the mock-up and evaluate the impact of dehumidification on the moisture condition inside the cable
