Development of a tomography technique for assessment of the material condition of concrete using optimized elastic wave parameters

Hwa Kian Chai*, Kit Fook Liu, Arash Behnia, Kobayashi Yoshikazu, Tomoki Shiotani

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Concrete is the most ubiquitous construction material. Apart from the fresh and early age properties of concrete material, its condition during the structure life span affects the overall structural performance. Therefore, development of techniques such as non-destructive testing which enable the investigation of the material condition, are in great demand. Tomography technique has become an increasingly popular non-destructive evaluation technique for civil engineers to assess the condition of concrete structures. In the present study, this technique is investigated by developing reconstruction procedures utilizing different parameters of elastic waves, namely the travel time, wave amplitude, wave frequency, and Q-value. In the development of algorithms, a ray tracing feature was adopted to take into account the actual non-linear propagation of elastic waves in concrete containing defects. Numerical simulation accompanied by experimental verifications of wave motion were conducted to obtain wave propagation profiles in concrete containing honeycomb as a defect and in assessing the tendon duct filling of pre-stressed concrete (PC) elements. The detection of defects by the developed tomography reconstruction procedures was evaluated and discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number291
JournalMaterials
Volume9
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2016

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Honeycomb
  • Imaging algorithm
  • Pre-stressed concrete (PC)
  • Ray tracing
  • Tomography
  • Wave propagation

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