By Pedro Soethe, Technical Specialist in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) at Autodesk in Brazil
In 2018, we were impacted by two very peculiar cases in viaducts in the country. The first was in Brasília, in the Eixão Sul, which fell at the beginning of the year, more precisely in February, still causing great inconvenience, as it remains so far. reconstructed. And the cost? It has already exceeded 10 million reais.
Now, more recently, it was the turn of the Jaguaré viaduct at the Marginal Pinheiros, in São Paulo, to suffer from the lack of maintenance and to transform the city into a real chaos without an end date. So far there is no deadline for resolution and much less the cost, but it will certainly have a number similar or even greater than the first example.
So, how would it be possible to avoid these millionaire losses? There are traditional ways of doing preventive maintenance for these types of structures, among them, personally raising from the conditions, performing quality tests to try to identify possible pathologies. All data found and analyzed must then be compared with the original project to try to find inconsistencies or changes.
But this is where all the problems begin: first we have the question of the time to do all these surveys and tests, according to the original projects almost all have already been lost. Even when they are still done in this way, the data is still analog, usually on paper, which is often not stored or attached to the original designs, even because they have already been lost.
Imagine, today, someone reaching out to the mayor of a large city and asking what are the three biggest problems in their bridges / viaducts? Few would know exactly the answer, I bet they would be "are with cracks" or "are with different problems".
Here technology begins to enter. Today we have technological tools that can do much of the work and systematize the design of verification, analysis, simulation of scenarios and even prediction of problems - with a few clicks of the mouse it is possible to have a complete report of the main changes detected in the period of one year, a month or a week, for example.
First step is the creation of the digital twin of the structure, this is totally possible, today this process can be done through laser checks, drones, even traditional surveys united, which can take to the computer the exact three-dimensional image with all the characteristics fully measurable and verifiable geometric shapes.
In addition, using software it is possible to remodel the same structure with all its characteristics, not only geometric, but also to identify the type of material of the multiple components, its resistance, pressure, torsion, abrasion, leaching, etc. What is the amount of hardware, drainage, the type of pavement, the sidewalk, the signage, among thousands of other possibilities. Everything can be rewritten with all its characteristics inside the computer, this is called BIM (Building Information Modeling).
With the digital twin inside the computer with all its real characteristics and its boundary conditions inside a computer system, it is possible to do what you want within a controlled environment and simulate what you want: what if it rains too much? What if this particular structure breaks down? What if a truck hits this pillar? And if? Anyway, we can test what we want, and thus find an alternative to that possible event.
If all the processes are done in a digitalized way, it is possible to define the precise budget and how it will be necessary to act more quickly and effectively. Cities like Brasília and São Paulo, have thousands of structures such as bridges / viaducts, it is essential to use technologies that automate and generate reliable, testable and secure information. One thing is certain, everything I wrote here, the investment is lower both in its direct and indirect financial cost, as well as in time.
Disclaimer: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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