Title:
Crack Depth Estimation in Concrete Using Energy Transmission of Surface Waves
Author(s):
Sung Woo Shin, Jinying Zhu, Jiyoung Min, and John S. Popovics
Publication:
Materials Journal
Volume:
105
Issue:
5
Appears on pages(s):
510-516
Keywords:
crack depth, nondestructive testing, spectral energy transmission, stress waves
DOI:
10.14359/19981
Date:
9/1/2008
Abstract:
The self-calibrating surface wave transmission method is a promising nondestructive technique for surface-breaking crack depth inspection of concrete. Determination of crack depth using the cut-off frequency in the transmission function (TRF) is difficult, however, in part due to the variability of the measurement data. In this paper, the spectral wave-energy transmission method, which employs the self-calibrating configuration, is proposed for crackdepth estimation in concrete structures. Results from an experimental study carried out on a concrete slab with varying crack (notch) depths are reported. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by comparing the conventional time-of-flight and cut-off frequency-based methods. The results show that spectral energy transmission has excellent potential as a practical and reliable inplace nondestructive method for in-place crack depth estimation in concrete structures.