Crack-Depth Estimation in Concrete Elements Using Ultrasonic Shear-Horizontal Waves
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34, Issue 4
Abstract
Determination of the depth of surface-opening (visible) cracks is of critical importance for evaluating the structural safety of concrete elements. Accurately determining the crack depth with traditional nondestructive testing methods, however, is challenging. This study developed a new method using ultrasonic shear-horizontal (SH) waves to detect the depth of surface-opening cracks in concrete. The method is based on the diffraction of ultrasonic SH waves at the bottom edge of a crack. An off-the-shelf ultrasonic imaging device was used with dry-point contact transducers having a set of transmitters and a set of receivers performing in a pitch-catch configuration. SH waves are superior to other waves in data interpretation because the SH waves have a higher signal-to-noise ratio as the only wave type generated by their transmitter and without mode conversion after diffraction. Thus, accurately identifying the travel time of diffracted SH waves in the time domain is very achievable. The crack depth can be calculated with the two-way travel time of SH waves, the spacing between the transducers, and the SH-wave speed. The method was validated with a-finite element model and experimental data from two case studies. Results indicated that this method can significantly improve the accuracy of determinations of the depth of surface-open cracks compared with the ultrasonic longitudinal wave method.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation of China (51908104), the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (2019M660597), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China [DUT18RC(3)077].
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34 • Issue 4 • August 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 7, 2019
Accepted: Feb 12, 2020
Published online: May 11, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 11, 2020
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