Nondestructive evaluation of the depth of surface-breaking cracks in concrete pipes

Surface-breaking cracks affect the material and structural properties of concrete pipes. Therefore, the nondestructive evaluation of the crack depth is important to assess the serviceability of these pipes, which are commonly used in underground infrastructure and trenchless installations (micro-tunneling). This paper presents theoretical, numerical and experimental results for the depth evaluation of surface-breaking cracks. The wall of a concrete pipe is represented as a plate in the numerical and the analytical studies. In the experiments, an ultrasonic piezoelectric transmitter is used as a source. The propagation of the ultrasonic pulse is analyzed using the wavelet transform. A newly proposed wavelet transmission coefficient (WTC) is measured using an equal spacing configuration for the crack depth evaluation in concrete pipes and concrete plates. The results from laboratory and in situ tests show good potential for the practical application of the WTC for the depth evaluation of surface-breaking cracks.

[1]  Mary Sansalone,et al.  DETERMINING THE DEPTH OF SURFACE-OPENING CRACKS USING IMPACT-GENERATED STRESS WAVES AND TIME-OF-FLIGHT TECHNIQUES , 1998 .

[2]  G. F. Miller,et al.  On the partition of energy between elastic waves in a semi-infinite solid , 1955, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[3]  Giovanni Cascante,et al.  PARAMETER ESTIMATION IN FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATIONS OF RAYLEIGH WAVES , 2002 .

[4]  J. Santamarina,et al.  Rayleigh Wave Propagation for the Detection of Near Surface Discontinuities: Finite Element Modeling , 2003 .

[5]  J. Achenbach,et al.  Self-calibrating ultrasonic technique for crack depth measurement , 1992 .

[6]  Yiching Lin,et al.  USE OF STRESS WAVES FOR DETERMINING THE DEPTH OF SURFACE-OPENING CRACKS IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES , 1996 .

[7]  Masoud Ghandehari,et al.  APPLICATION OF SURFACE WAVE TRANSMISSION MEASUREMENTS FOR CRACK DEPTH DETERMINATION IN CONCRETE , 2000 .

[8]  Maria Anna Polak,et al.  Depth detection of surface-breaking cracks in concrete plates using fundamental Lamb modes , 2009 .

[9]  O. Abraham,et al.  Characterization of surface cracks with Rayleigh waves: a numerical model , 1998 .

[10]  J. Virieux P-SV wave propagation in heterogeneous media: Velocity‐stress finite‐difference method , 1986 .

[11]  Maria Anna Polak,et al.  New Method for the Evaluation of Material Damping Using the Wavelet Transform , 2011 .

[12]  Surendra P. Shah,et al.  Measurement of surface wave transmission coefficient across surface-breaking cracks and notches in concrete. , 2003, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[13]  Yanjun Yang Nondestructive Evaluation of the Depth of Cracks in Concrete Plates Using Surface Waves , 2009 .

[14]  K. Graff Wave Motion in Elastic Solids , 1975 .

[15]  Dale W. Fitting,et al.  Ultrasonic Spectral Analysis for Nondestructive Evaluation , 1981 .

[16]  Joseph Lardies Identification of a dynamical model for an acoustic enclosure using the wavelet transform , 2007 .