by Ann Withanee — December 5, 2011—A new breakthrough hand-held scanner quickly determines if concrete buildings and overpasses have structural integrity, says Giatec Scientific, Inc. By simply touching the device to certain points of questionable concrete structures, the scanner searches for certain levels of chemicals and residue and then reports back the likelihood of whether the steel reinforcing bars, or rebar, within are rotting due to rust. In short, says the Ottawa-based company founded in 2010, its new device can help countries around the world identify and fix their crumbling concrete structures before they collapse.
Monitoring the integrity of concrete infrastructure, such as bridges and parking garages, has become a high priority for governments. Incidents such as the 2007 collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge have sparked a mass investigation into the safety of other highway infrastructures. After the 2006 collapse of an overpass in Laval, Quebec, the Quebec government was told it needs to spend $500 million a year over ten years to fix all of the crumbling concrete bridges and overpasses across the province.
By connecting the device to a piece of exposed rebar and the concrete structure itself, Giatec’s scanner automatically takes samples that it puts through a complex computer modeling simulation to determine the integrity of the structure. Rebar within overpasses and other structures often rusts after being exposed to years of salt from road salting or sea water. When the bar rusts, it can expand by up to six times its original diameter, breaking apart the concrete. Some structures show little sign of decay until they begin to crack and fall apart.
The company’s technology is designed to help engineers determine which structures need replacing and which do not. It could also help prioritize the replacement schedule by identifying which structures are in more advanced stages of decay.
Giatec’s technology is the result of more than eight years of research from both the University of Ottawa, where Aali Alizadeh, the chief executive at Giatec Scientific, studied, and Carleton University, where his partner, Pouria Ghods, studied. They pooled their expertise in structural engineering to create Giatec in late 2010. In their short history, the two have won awards from the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) for their research in the field. Patents for the pair’s work are pending.