Assessment of Corroded Rock Bolts with Pulse Echo Tests
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 23, Issue 4
Abstract
Visual inspection of rock bolts could give some indications on their condition and performance. However, it might be misleading because most of the rock bolts are embedded in concrete or grouted in rock mass. Nondestructive methods have to be used for a proper diagnosis of the condition of rock bolts. This study deals with the determination and the location of the corrosion in rock bolts embedded in concrete using a pulse-echo test. Complementary tests were performed using an acoustic emission (AE) test, and measuring the mass loss from corrosion current. Pulse-echo test results showed that a decrease of the energy of the back echo and the trailing wall echo is indicative of the corrosion state. This method enables locating the flaws associated with the corrosion of rock bolts by the calculation of the normalized energy ratio between the echoes coming from the threads of healthy and corroded rock bolts. Results of acoustic emission and imposed electrochemical potential provide information on the corrosion initiation. This research indicates that the pulse-echo is an effective measurement technique for corrosion detection.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Danick Charbonneau from the Civil Engineering Department of Université de Sherbrooke for technical support. The authors gratefully acknowledge Hydro-Québec and the National Sciences Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for funding this work.
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Published In
Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 23 • Issue 4 • December 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 1, 2015
Accepted: Dec 8, 2016
Published online: Mar 9, 2017
Discussion open until: Aug 9, 2017
Published in print: Dec 1, 2017
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