Characterization of surface crack depth and repair evaluation using Rayleigh waves

The issues of surface crack depth determination and the evaluation of repair effectiveness are not trivial for concrete engineers. In the present paper, surface waves are applied on concrete blocks with artificial slots to correlate wave parameters with crack depth. To simulate crack repair with an injected material, epoxy is applied to the slots in the laboratory and quantification of the filling percentage is attempted. Simultaneously, a frequency domain boundary element method is employed for the numerical simulation of transient pulses interacting with surface breaking cracks. Experimental results compare well with the numerical ones, showing that the repair effectiveness, which so far can be evaluated only by destructive techniques, is possible by simple surface wave measurements

Evaluation of grouting in tunnel lining using impact-echo

The shield tunneling method is commonly used for tunnel excavation. After the excavation, curved reinforced concrete members are used to support the surrounding ground/rock and seal the tunnel. Grouting is performed to provide adhesion between the concrete members and the ground. The assessment of the grouting quality by pull-out tests and core sampling is destructive, time-consuming and expensive. In the present case, impact-echo was applied as a means of non-destructive and time-effective evaluation. Excitation was conducted by an impact hammer on the surface of several concrete plates and the reflection was acquired by a low frequency accelerometer. Combined use of time domain characteristics, spectral content and wavelet transform reveal the effectiveness of grouting and indicate that impact echo is valuable for quick and reliable assessment of grouting in such cases

The influence of propagation path on elastic waves as measured by acoustic emission parameters

Apart from the quantitative parameters of acoustic emission testing, such as the total activity or the location of the sources, much more information can be exploited by qualitative characteristics of the signals. The shape of the waveform strongly depends on the source, supplying information on the type of cracks. Shear cracks which normally follow tensile during fracture, emit signals with longer rise time as well as lower average frequency. However, due to the inherent inhomogeneity of the media, which is enhanced by the nucleation of cracks, each pulse suffers strong dispersion which results in serious alteration of the waveform shape. Therefore, classification of cracks based on acoustic emission parameters would be probably misleading in case the separation distance of the sensors is long or the material contains many cracks. In the present study, numerical simulations were conducted in order to examine the influence of distance on the shape distortion of an excited wave inside concrete. Results are compared with actual experiments on steel fiber reinforced concrete, showing that the distance between the source crack and the acquisition point should not exceed a threshold value in order to lead to reliable crack classification. </jats:p