Diagnostic Imaging of Structural Concrete Using Ground Penetrating Radar and Ultrasonic Array
Year: 2019
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Structural concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world. Many structures critical to a society such as bridges, hospitals, and airports are built with concrete. While this material is well understood from a mechanical design point of view, still no accurate quantitative tools exist to assess it for damage and deterioration. This is of particular concern for an urban area like Portland with a mega-thrust earthquake waiting to occur. Non-destructive evaluation tools that can quickly and accurately give a full picture of the integrity of structural concrete elements will be key to help plan effective and safe recovery missions. Ground penetrating radar is a non-destructive testing device which uses electromagnetic waves to assess the interior of the concrete and is especially useful in identifying embedded rebars in the concrete. In addition, ultrasonic array is a tool which uses stress waves and their echoes to image inside the concrete. This technique is most useful where there is a concrete and air interface. In this research, signals from both modalities are obtained from the specimens built in the iSTAR laboratory. Further, the signals are processed to generate a visual representation of the interior of the concrete. Finally, a high resolution image is obtained by data fusion of the two different modalities. The results show a good approximation of the details such as the location of the rebars, air void and the depth of the concrete.
Language: English
Subfield: Geophysics
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2945171397