Determination of Pavement Thickness with a New Ultrasonic Device

摘要

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) spends a significant amount ofmoney and effort to perform concrete coring. Coring is normally done to monitor the thickness and/or quality of Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) slabs during construction. Because a considerable amount of time is required to perform the procedure, it is done at widely spaced intervals. As a result, the most critical points, in terms of strength or thickness, are sometimes not tested. The development of reliable and fast nondestructive testing equipment capable of determining the thickness and quality of concrete is desirable. With it, slabs could be tested at closely spaced points and at a fraction of the cost and time of coring. The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), has developed a comprehensive nondestructive test (NDT) device to diagnose problems with pavement at early stages. A technique for determining the thichness of PCC slabs has been implemented. This technology has been packaged as an inexpensive device for nondestructively determining the thickness of PCC slabs.