Planning of Ultrasonic Inspections of Parallel Wire Cables

Authors

Svend Engelund and Michael H. Faber

Abstract

One stay cable of the Guazú bridge - one out of two quasi identical, combined road and railway cable stayed bridges across the Paraná river between Zárate and Brazo Largo, Argentina - ruptured in November 1996 after 20 years of service without prior indication of the critical situation. After the immediate replacement of the broken stay detailed investigations and tests were undertaken. These investigations and tests provided information about the condition of the stays, the loads acting on the bridge and the efficiency and accuracy of the inspection methods. Using this information together with a definition of the safety requirements a plan for UT-inspections of the cables was developed with the purpose of controlling the safety of the bridge in the future.

Published in/by

Proceedings PMC2000, 8th ASCE Specialty Conference on Probabilistic Mechanics and Structural Reliability, Notre Dame, Indianapolis USA, July 23-26, 2000.