Monitoring setting and hardening of concrete by active acoustic method: Effects of water-to-cement ratio and pozzolanic materials

Abstract An active acoustic method is used to monitor the setting and hardening of early age concrete, by recording and analyzing the wave velocity and attenuation coefficient. The effects of water-to-cement ratio and pozzolanic materials (fly ash and silica fume) are examined. The central frequency of the acoustic excitation is 6 kHz, which is much lower than that of ultrasound and can enhance the signal-to-noise ratio when applied to very early age concrete. It was found that the wave velocity measurement can reveal clearly three stages in the hydration process of early age concrete, and an aluminate hydrates phase transition period can be defined based on the attenuation coefficient measurement. Lower water-to-cement ratio and the incorporation of more silica fume facilitate a faster development of both wave velocity and attenuation coefficient, and achieve higher one-day wave velocity values, showing their accelerating effects. The incorporation of fly ash postpones the development of both wave velocity and attenuation coefficient, and achieves lower one-day wave velocity values, showing its retardation effect. The attenuation coefficients of all concretes tend to converge to the same value, i.e. 4 Np/m.

[1]  Colin M. Sayers,et al.  Propagation of ultrasound through hydrating cement pastes at early times , 1993 .

[2]  Zongjin Li,et al.  Cement‐Based 0‐3 Piezoelectric Composites , 2004 .

[3]  B. Dong,et al.  Study on water sorptivity of the surface layer of concrete , 2014 .

[4]  Zhihui Sun,et al.  Early Age Microstructure Of Portland Cement Mortar Investigated By Ultrasonic Shear Waves And Numerical Simulation , 2005 .

[5]  Nele De Belie,et al.  Monitoring fresh concrete by ultrasonic transmission measurements: exploratory multi-way analysis of the spectral information , 2009 .

[6]  Doobyong Bae,et al.  Ultrasonic in-situ monitoring of setting process of high-performance concrete , 2004 .

[7]  Y. Ribakov,et al.  Effectiveness of nonlinear ultrasonic and acoustic emission evaluation of concrete with distributed damages , 2010 .

[8]  Zongjin Li,et al.  Study on hydration process of early-age concrete using embedded active acoustic and non-contact complex resistivity methods , 2013 .

[9]  Gangbing Song,et al.  Concrete early-age strength monitoring using embedded piezoelectric transducers , 2006 .

[10]  A.L.A. Fraaij,et al.  Study on the development of the microstructure in cement-based materials by means of numerical simulation and ultrasonic pulse velocity measurement , 2004 .

[11]  Zongjin Li.  Advanced Concrete Technology , 2011 .

[12]  Gangbing Song,et al.  Very early age concrete hydration characterization monitoring using piezoceramic based smart aggregates , 2013 .

[13]  Ramazan Demirboga,et al.  RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ULTRASONIC VELOCITY AND COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH FOR HIGH-VOLUME MINERAL-ADMIXTURED CONCRETE , 2004 .

[14]  Zongjin Li,et al.  Signal-based AE characterization of concrete with cement-based piezoelectric composite sensors , 2011 .

[15]  Zongjin Li,et al.  Hydration monitoring of cement-based materials with resistivity and ultrasonic methods , 2009 .

[16]  Weiwei Zhu,et al.  Ultrasound monitoring of setting and hardening process of ultra-high performance cementitious materials , 2012 .

[17]  H. Reinhardt,et al.  Continuous monitoring of setting and hardening of mortar and concrete , 2004 .

[18]  Zongjin Li,et al.  Multi-Aggregate Approach for Modeling Interfacial Transition Zone in Concrete , 2014 .

[19]  A. Neville.  Properties of Concrete , 1968 .

[20]  Guang Ye,et al.  Experimental Study and Numerical Simulation of the Development of the Microstructure and Permeability of Cementitious Materials , 2003 .

[21]  Zongjin Li,et al.  Two-scale modeling of the capillary network in hydrated cement paste , 2014 .

[22]  Jinying Zhu,et al.  Using piezoelectric sensors for ultrasonic pulse velocity measurements in concrete , 2013 .

[23]  J. Bijen,et al.  The reaction of fly ash in concrete a critical examination , 1989 .

[24]  Yuri Ribakov,et al.  Non-linear ultrasonic evaluation of damaged concrete based on higher order harmonic generation , 2009 .

[25]  Nele De Belie,et al.  Monitoring the setting of concrete containing blast-furnace slag by measuring the ultrasonic p-wave velocity , 2008 .

[26]  Yuri Ribakov,et al.  Efficiency and sensitivity of linear and non-linear ultrasonics to identifying micro and macro-scale defects in concrete , 2013 .

[27]  Th. Voigt,et al.  Comparison of ultrasonic wave transmission and reflection measurements with P- and S-waves on early age mortar and concrete , 2005 .

[28]  Zongjin Li,et al.  Signal-Based Acoustic Emission Monitoring on Mortar Using Cement-Based Piezoelectric Sensors , 2011 .

[29]  Stéphanie Staquet,et al.  Monitoring of the ultrasonic P-wave velocity in early-age concrete with embedded piezoelectric transducers , 2012 .

[30]  C. Poon,et al.  Degree of hydration and gel/space ratio of high-volume fly ash/cement systems , 2000 .

[31]  Hongping Zhu,et al.  Monitoring of the strength gain of concrete using embedded PZT impedance transducer , 2011 .

[32]  Zongjin Li,et al.  Realistic pore structure of Portland cement paste: experimental study and numerical simulation , 2013 .

[33]  G. Corneloup,et al.  Setting time study of roller compacted concrete by spectral analysis of transmitted ultrasonic signals , 1995 .

[34]  Hongyan Ma,et al.  Ultrasonic monitoring of the early-age hydration of mineral admixtures incorporated concrete using cement-based piezoelectric composite sensors , 2015 .

[35]  C. Grosse,et al.  Ultrasonic transmission to monitor setting and hardening of fly ash concrete , 2008 .