Estimating the Depth of Concrete Pier Wall Bridge Foundations Using Nondestructive Sonic Echo

This application paper outlines procedure developed for conducting nondestructive sonic echo (SE) tests to determine the depth of unknown concrete pier wall foundations. The National Bridge Inventory recognizes that more than 86,000 bridges in the US have no foundation data on record. An unknown percentage of these could also be highly vulnerable to scouring and subsequent failure. A series of field tests using the SE method were conducted on concrete pier wall foundations in the current research. Finite element models were used to understand the effect of the duration of impact, superstructure and upward striking on the pier caps on the waveform detected at the sensors. Good agreement were identified between the field tests and simulated models. Finally, practical recommendations were made to improve the SE methodology based on laboratory and field tests.