Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. hkchai@um.edu.my
  • 2 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. chris.liukf@gmail.com
  • 3 Discipline of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Selangor 46150, Malaysia. arash.behnia@monash.edu
  • 4 Department of Civil Engineering, Nihon University, Tokyo 101-8308, Japan. kobayashi.yoshikazu@nihon-u.ac.jp
  • 5 Department of Civil and Earth Resources Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8530, Japan. shiotani.tomoki.2v@kyoto-u.ac.jp
Materials (Basel), 2016 Apr 16;9(4).
PMID: 28773416 DOI: 10.3390/ma9040291

Abstract

Concrete is the most ubiquitous construction material. Apart from the fresh and early age properties of concrete material, its condition during the structure life span affects the overall structural performance. Therefore, development of techniques such as non-destructive testing which enable the investigation of the material condition, are in great demand. Tomography technique has become an increasingly popular non-destructive evaluation technique for civil engineers to assess the condition of concrete structures. In the present study, this technique is investigated by developing reconstruction procedures utilizing different parameters of elastic waves, namely the travel time, wave amplitude, wave frequency, and Q-value. In the development of algorithms, a ray tracing feature was adopted to take into account the actual non-linear propagation of elastic waves in concrete containing defects. Numerical simulation accompanied by experimental verifications of wave motion were conducted to obtain wave propagation profiles in concrete containing honeycomb as a defect and in assessing the tendon duct filling of pre-stressed concrete (PC) elements. The detection of defects by the developed tomography reconstruction procedures was evaluated and discussed.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.