Evaluation of near surface material degradation in concrete using nonlinear Rayleigh surface waves

J. Gross, J. Y. Kim, L. J. Jacobs, K. E. Kurtis, J. Qu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Comparative studies of nondestructive evaluation methods have shown that nonlinear ultrasonic techniques are more sensitive than conventional linear methods to changes in material microstructure and the associated small-scale damage. Many of the material degradation processes such as carbonation in concrete, corrosion in metals, etc., initiate at the surface. In such cases, ultrasonic Rayleigh surface waves are especially appropriate for detection and characterization of damage since their energy is concentrated in the top layer of the test object. For the civil engineering infrastructure, only a limited number of field applicable nonlinear ultrasonic techniques have been introduced. In this paper a nonlinear ultrasonic measurement technique based on the use of Rayleigh waves is developed and used to characterize carbonation in concrete samples. This work develops a collinear mixing technique for concrete structures. Wedge transducer is used for the generation and an accelerometer for the detection of the fundamental and nonlinearity modulated ultrasonic signal components. The measurements are made by varying the input voltage and along the propagation distance. The slope of the normalized modulation amplitudes is taken as the nonlinearity parameter. Concrete samples with two different levels of damage are examined, and the difference of the two fundamental frequencies is used to quantify damage state.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationReview of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, Volume 32
EditorsDale E. Chimenti, Donald O. Thompson
Pages1309-1316
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9780735411296
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Event39th Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, QNDE 2012 - Denver, United States
Duration: 15 Jul 201220 Jul 2012

Publication series

NameAIP Conference Proceedings
Volume1511
ISSN (Print)0094-243X
ISSN (Electronic)1551-7616

Conference

Conference39th Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, QNDE 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDenver
Period15/07/1220/07/12

Keywords

  • Concrete
  • Modulation
  • Nonlinear Ultrasonics
  • Rayleigh Surface Waves
  • Wave Mixing

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