Risk-Based Inspection Strategies of Miter Gates Based on Structural Health Monitoring

All over the world, many existing gates are used for inland navigation infrastructures. Miter gates are widely used over 90% of navigation locks in the United States due to their well-proven design, economic and aesthetic advantages. The purpose of the inspection strategy is to ensure the safe operation and serviceability of these structures. Inspection and monitoring of hydraulic steel structures are costly and generally performed by visual inspection at approximately 5–10 year intervals. There are many factors leading to the extensive degradation of miter gates including fatigue failure caused by cyclic loading, effects of environmental conditions, increasing load or design requirements over time. Therefore, it is required to use continuous monitoring system of miter gates to obtain the changes of the structural status as a function of time using real-time data. This paper presents a framework where a heuristic rule is used for risk-based inspection planning of a miter gate based on Structural Health Monitoring (SHM).