Assessment of an industrial pavement via the impact acoustics method

Title: Assessment of an industrial pavement via the impact acoustics method
Author(s): R. Felicetti
Paper category : conference
Book title: RILEM Symposium on On Site Assessment of Concrete, Masonry and Timber Structures - SACoMaTiS 2008
Editor(s): L. Binda, M. di Prisco, R. Felicetti
Print-ISBN: 978-2-35158-061-5
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-075-2
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2008
Pages: 127 - 136
Total Pages: 10
Nb references: 5
Language: English

Abstract: Despite of their apparent simplicity, industrial pavements often represent a critical issue in Civil Engineering: shrinkage strain, excessive deflection, fatigue loading, incompatibility among different concrete layers are some common problems which may lead to an extensive damage in this type of structure. Such inconveniences usually involve quite large areas, calling for very efficient ND Techniques in order to perform a thorough inspection of the pavement conditions.
In this paper the impact-acoustic technique has been regarded as a possible solution for detecting the shallow delamination fractures occurring under the abrasion-resistant top coating of concrete ground-slabs. The implementation of this technique is based on a specially designed hammering-trolley, which is driven along prescribed lines allowing to scan the pavement at a regular pace. The blows are recorded via condenser microphone and a digital audio card connected to a laptop. Through a proper processing of the audio files, the local response of the pavement at each tested point is summarized into a scalar damage indicator.
This parameter is then converted into a colour scale, allowing to produce a damage map which is of valuable guidance in planning the necessary repair works for restoring the pavement functionality.

Online publication: 2009-05-26
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00