Abstract
The organic coating of bridge steel girders is subjected to physical scratches, corrosion, and aging in natural weathering. The breakdown of the coating may cause serviceability and safety problems if left unnoticed. Conventional coating inspection is time-consuming and lacks information about the coating's chemical integrity. A hyperspectral imaging method is proposed to detect the condition of steel coatings based on coating-responsive features in reflectance spectra. A field test was conducted on the real-world bridge, which shows obvious signs of degradation. The hyperspectral signature enables an assessment of the coating's health and defect severity. The results indicated that the coating scratch can be effectively located in the domain of a hyperspectral image and the scratch depth can be determined by mapping a scratch depth indicator (SDI = R532 nm/R641 nm). Rust sources and products in steel girders can be identified by the unique spectral signatures in the VNIR range, and the rust stains (and thus stain areas) scattered on the coating can be pinpointed at pixel level by the chloride rust (CR) indicators >1.11 (CR = R733 nm/R841 nm). The chemical integrity of a topcoat is demonstrated by the short-wave infrared spectroscopy and the topcoat degradation can be evaluated by the decreased absorption at 8000 cm−1 and 5850 cm−1. Hyperspectral imaging enables faster and more reliable coating condition detection by the spectral features and provides an alternative for multi-object coating detection.
Recommended Citation
P. Ma et al., "Coating Condition Detection And Assessment On The Steel Girder Of A Bridge Through Hyperspectral Imaging," Coatings, vol. 13, no. 6, article no. 1008, MDPI, Jun 2023.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13061008
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Publication Status
Open Access
Keywords and Phrases
coating degradation; corrosion; hyperspectral imaging; nondestructive inspection; spectroscopic analysis; steel girder
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2079-6412
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2023 The Authors, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Publication Date
01 Jun 2023
Comments
U.S. Department of Transportation, Grant 69A3551747126