Propagating ultrasonic guided waves through concrete reinforcments with simulated and actual corrosion

摘要

Deterioration of reinforcing bars and tendons due to corrosion in civil infrastructures like bridges, dams, buildings etc is one of the major causes of their catastrophic collapses. Thus, a rigorous inspection of the embedded reinforcements for corrosion related damages on a regular basis is imperative. In the present work, ultrasonic guided waves have been utilized to develop a damage detection methodology for steel bars embedded in concrete with simulated notch and debond defects. Both pulse transmission and pulse echo techniques have been adopted and the time of flight and signal attenuation have been observed to locate and quantify damages accurately. The method is then successfully applied to reinforced concrete beam specimens undergoing accelerated chloride corrosion.