Robotic Underwater Corrosion Inspection/Assessment of Sheet Pile Along Two Rivers at Cleveland, Ohio

Abstract : The objectives of this study were to (1) perform a quantitative underwater corrosion inspection and assessment of sheet pile along the Cuyahoga River at Cleveland and (2) use the measured material thicknesses and corrosion rates to predict a probable future range of sheet pile thickness. The work was conducted in response to The Water Resources Development Act of 1996, Section 438, which directs the Army to project the cost of repairing and/or replacing all sheet pile along the Cuyahoga River. This Phase 2 work was a follow-on condition assessment, conducted by the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL), using a remotely controlled submersible robotic inspection system in conjunction with conventional hand-held acoustic thickness probes. Data were collected from 12 sites over a period of 1 week. Based on the data sample collected during the limited time frame of the study, a bounded, steady-state projection of future sheet pile condition was made for each site. Because corrosion rates correlate directly to the degree of zebra mussel infestation, these condition projections may be too conservative if zebra mussel infestation proceeds significantly faster than assumed in this study.