In any infrastructure project, monitoring and managing the built assets is an important task. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is meant for continuous assessment of safety and serviceability of a structure and its elements. SHM has taken a leading role in the field of structural engineering and has become very popular in recent age. Bridge deflection is the basic evaluation index to examine the health status of a bridge structure. The existing bridge monitoring systems have several drawbacks. Hence, a new methodological approach has been proposed to overcome the limitations of traditional contact-based bridge deflection monitoring system and other non-contact based system. This study developed a non-contact linear feature based Deflection Monitoring System (DMS) using Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and cameras for timber railroad bridges. The process and detailed workflow of building the DMS, its components and sensors involved are discussed here. The efficiency of this DMS is validated against a deflectometer. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Scour is the process of sediment erosion around bridge piers and abutments due to natural and man-made hydraulic activities. Excessive scour is a critical problem that is typically handled by enforcing design requirements that make the submerged structures more resilient. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the feasibilities of the Optical- Based Green Laser Scanner and HydroLite Sonar in a laboratory setting to capture the 3D profile of simulated local scour holes. The Green Laser had successfully reconstructed a 3D point-cloud imaging of scour profiles under both dry and clear water conditions. The derived scour topography after applying water refraction correction was compared with the simulated scour hole, and was within 1% of the design dimensions. The elevations at the top and bottom surfaces of the 6.5-inch scour hole were -46.6 and -53.11 inches from the reference line at the origin (0,0,0) of the laser scanner. The HydroLite Sonar recorded hydrographical survey points of the scour’s interior surface. The survey points were then processed using MATLAB to obtain a 3D mesh triangulation. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection