bridge foundation evaluations

BRIDGE FOUNDATION EVALUATIONS
UNKNOWN FOUNDATIONS MAPPING & SCOUR ANALYSIS
ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS
FDH Velocitel is a professional services firm with specialized skills in the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of heavy civil structures. For over 20 years, we
have been at the forefront of pioneering and perfecting NDE technologies. Our projects span all 50 U.S. states and include work in the U.S. territories .
Incorporating our patented technologies, we offer our clients access to NDE capabilities that few firms possess.
Unknown foundations are a major problem facing owners of civil infrastructure throughout the United States. FDHV specializes in bringing knowledge
about what’s underground to the surface. For bridge structures, this typically involves the determination of subsurface embedment. Once bridge pile
characteristics have been determined, our hydraulics and hydrology team screens for scour potential and, where merited, performs a detailed bridge
scour analysis.
NDE Services Include, But Are Not Limited To:
Hydraulics and Hydrology Services Include:
>> Unknown Foundation Investigations
>> Stream, Bridge and Floodplain Modeling
>> Dispersive Wave Propagation Methods
>> HEC-RAS & HEC-18 Evaluation
>> Determination of Structural Integrity / Strength of As-Built >> 1D and 2D Analysis
Structural Systems
NDE METHODS PROVIDED
DISPERSIVE FLEXURAL (BENDING) WAVE PROPAGATION
Dispersive Flexural wave technology was first pioneered and developed by Dr. J.
Darrin Holt, PE and Dr. Robert Douglas at North Carolina State University (NCSU) for
the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA). The research was driven by the fact that several thousand
bridges existed that were supported by timber piles having unknown lengths and
a method was needed to nondestructively
address the problem. Laboratory and field
work was undertaken over several years that
resulted in this new technology. Extensive
verification trials were conducted by NCDOT
and NCSU researchers; and the method was
found to be a reliable solution to determine
unknown timber pile lengths. In subsequent
Applications:
>> Determines driven timber pile lengths
>> Determines driven concrete pile lengths (pre-
stressed or reinforced)
>> Qualitative condition assessment (deterioration, breaks)
Advantages
>> Economical - does not require expensive borehole
drilling
>> Several piles / structures can be tested in a single day
>> Underwater testing capabilities
>> Qualitatively identifies deterioration, breaks, fractures
years this method of collecting and analyzing
stress wave data was adapted for concrete
piles as well and has been used by FDHV for
both state DOT’s and private corporations.
DISPERSIVE PULSE - ECHO TESTING
Dispersive Pulse-Echo (DPE) is a modern adaptation of on an old technology.
Transducers and impact locations are positioned on a foundation’s exposed
surface where accessible; and individual frequencies inside a pulse are tracked
as they reflect and refract from a foundation’s
boundaries. Where foundation elements become
slender and more deeply embedded, DPE is
advantageous in identifying foundation tips and
evaluating qualitative condition. DPE offers the user
unparalleled capability of evaluating embedded
foundations whose length / diameter ratios are quite
large. DPE is also applicable to shallow foundations
such as piers, mats, slabs, and buried footings.
Applications:
>> Determines driven concrete pile lengths (pre-
stressed or reinforced)
>> Determines drilled shafts & auger cast pile lengths
>> Determines mat / slab / footing / abutment thickness
>> Locates delaminations / voids
>> Can give qualitative condition
Advantages:
>> Proven easy to implement
>> Can test large areas in a single day
>> Gives condition information if the grid is sufficiently
refined
DISPERSIVE SIDE SONIC
Applications:
Dispersive Side Sonic (DSS) testing is a
>> Determines driven and cast-in-place pile lengths
modern successor to the previous Parallel
>> Determines foundation depths beneath buried Seismic (PS) method. DSS uses the concepts
of dispersive wave propagation to analyze
footings
>> Determines onsite rock anchor lengths
PS data when searching for pile tips that are
difficult to locate with traditional analysis
procedures.
DSS involves positioning a
transducer in a borehole at predetermined
Advantages
>> Robust
>> Good for buried piles or pile supported footings
locations near a foundation element and
generating a mechanical impact along the
exposed portion of a structure. The data
is collected and used for identifying the
depth of the foundation’s tip by tracking
individual frequencies within the time
records. DSS has proven successful for finding pile tip locations from deeply buried
steel piles and pile supported footings; and has been employed on other foundation
types such as timber piles, concrete piles, drilled caissons, auger cast piles and even
rock anchors.
BRIDGE SCOUR SCREENING AND ANALYSIS
Resources for Scour Screening and Analysis:
FDHV has a team of engineers exclusively dedicated to hydraulics and hydrology
>> Resident GIS analyst and GIS software
analysis and modeling. We have a process in place to allow for initial screening
>> HEC-GeoRAS, HMS and RAS
of a bridge for scour susceptibility and determination of a National Bridge
>> Flexible mesh based 2D modeling
Inspections Standards (NBIS) Item 113 Rating (Phase 1 Analysis). This process
uses data obtained by our NDE field inspection procedures, as well as data from
the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency
>> High performance computing with Tesla K40 GPU
>> HEC-18 analysis spreadsheets
(FEMA) and other sources to perform the component analyses that make up the
>> Conventional and GPS survey capabilities
Phase 1 (hydrologic, stream stability, pile penetration and others). For bridges
>> Proprietary NDE technologies and expertise
screened and determined as being scour
susceptible, we can arrange additional
field data collection (field survey of
channel
cross
sections
and
bridge
structure), and then refine our hydrologic
analysis and develop a hydraulic model
to provide input for a detailed analysis
using
HEC-18
procedures
(Phase
2
Analysis). Our engineers are experienced
in the development of single dimensional
hydraulic analyses using HEC-RAS, as well
as the development of two-dimensional hydraulic models for more complicated
bridge geometries. Using the results of the analyses, we can provide a new NBIS
Item 113 rating.
NORTHBROOK (HQ)
BATON ROUGE
BOCA RATON
1033 Skokie Blvd., Suite 320
9239 Bluebonnet Blvd., Suite A
11760 US Highway One
Northbrook, IL 60062
Baton Rouge, LA 70810
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33408
O: 224.757.0001
O: 225.663.2487
O: 561.249.4994
F: 224.265.4882
F: 225.663.2490
CARY
COSTA MESA
DAYTON
8000 Regency Parkway, Suite 430
2415 Campus Dr., Suite 200
2005 West Stanfield Rd.
Cary, NC 27518
Irvine, CA 92612
Troy, OH 45373
O: 919.380.0062
O: 949.809.4999
O: 937.552.2421
F: 919.380.0036
F: 949.553.3919
O: 866.825.5021
GLEN ALLEN
KING OF PRUSSIA
LAKE OSWEGO
4144 Innslake
200 North Warner Rd., 2nd FL.
4004 Kruse Way Place, Suite 220
Glen Allen, VA 23060
King of Prussia, PA 19406-2886
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
O: 804.217.7088
O: 610.992.4101
O: 503.636.2500
F: 804.217.8665
F: 610.992.4109
F: 503.636.5201
MINNEAPOLIS
PHOENIX
RALEIGH
1701 American Blvd. East, Suite 16
2350 E Germann Rd. , Suite 26
6521 Meridien Dr.
Bloomington, MN 55425
Chandler, AZ 85286
Raleigh, NC 27616
O: 952.944.1858
O: 480.378.6405
O: 919.755.1012
F: 919.755.1031
F: 952.944.1506
ROSWELL
ST. LOUIS
SYRACUSE
570 Colonial Park Dr., Suite 307
222 South Central, Suite 1110
6103 East Molloy Rd.
Roswell, GA 30075
St. Louis, MO 63105
East Syracuse, NY 13057
O: 770.645.5900
O: 314.773.4000
O: 315.414.0510
F: 770.645.5943
F: 314.773.4002
F: 315.414.0509
SITESAFE
STAINLESS (PA OFFICE)
STAINLESS (TX OFFICE)
200 North Glebe Rd., Suite 1000
100 West Main St., Suite 400
1570 West Beltline Rd.
Arlington, VA 22203
Landsdale, PA 19446
Cedar Hill, TX 75104
O: 703.276.1100
O: 215.631.1400
O: 972.293.1200
F: 703.276.1169
F: 215.631.1425
F: 972.293.1255
www.fdhvelocitel.com
[email protected]
CONTACTS (Raleigh Office)
>> Robert Lindyberg, PhD, PE
>> James Billups, PE, CFM
Senior Vice President, Technology and R&D
Director, Civil Engineering
[email protected]
[email protected]
>> Laura Guy
>> Rakesh Anthony Khan, PE
Manager, Signal Processing
Engineering Manager
[email protected]
[email protected]