Real-time Bridge Scouring Safety Monitoring System by Using Mobile Wireless Technology

The scour is one of the major causes for bridge failure. Scour failure occurs suddenly without prior warning or sign of distress to the bridge. However, there are many challenges to monitor the processes of hydraulic scour, such as measuring equipments are essentially critical, especially during the floods. This paper presents an in-situ scour monitoring system by using the novel mobile wireless technology. The bridge piles subjected to scouring can result in the structural failure. Digital sensor nodes are embedded in the river bed at their designated depths. Because of the scouring depth can be identified by monitoring the responses of these digital sensor nodes via a time-history diagram. Using mobile wireless techniques (Wi-Fi and 3G) can report the scouring depth in real-time for safety evaluation of the bridge. The in-situ real-time bridge scouring monitoring system was applied successfully in the field during Morako typhoon in 2009 in Taiwan. This system has been demonstrated the reliable for real-time scouring-depth measurements.