• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.9-15
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• 2019

The purpose of present study is to assess the maximum width of the surface cracks using the histogram analysis of image processing techniques in concrete structures. For this purpose, the concrete crack image is acquired by the camera. The image is Grayscale coded and Binary coded. After Binary coded image is Dilate and Erode coded, the image is then recognized as separated objects by applying Labeling techniques. Over time, dust and stains may occur naturally on the surface of concrete. The crack image of concrete may include shadows and reflections by lighting depending on a surrounding conditions. In general, concrete cracks occur in a continuous pattern and noise of image appears in the form of shot noises. Bilateral Blurring and Adaptive Threshold apply to the Grayscale image to eliminate these effects. The remaining noises are removed by the object area ratio to the Labeled area. The maximum numbers of pixels and its positions in the crack objects without noises are calculated in x-direction and y-direction by Histogram analysis. The widths of the crack are estimated by trigonometric ratio at the positions of the pixels maximum numbers for the Labeled objects. Finally, the maximum crack width estimated by the proposed method is compared to the crack width measured with the crack gauge. The proposed method by the present study may increase the reliability for the estimation of maximum crack width using image processing techniques in concrete surface images.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.95-104
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• 2014

PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the degree of restraint (DOR) of longitudinal steel at continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) against environmental loadings. METHODS : To measure the longitudinal steel strain, 3-electrical resistance and self-temperature compensation gauges were installed to CRCP test section (thickness = 250mm, steel ratio = 0.7%) and continuously measured 10 min. intervals during 259 days. In order to properly analyze the steel strains first, temperature compensation process has been conducted. Secondly, measured steel strains were divided into 12 phases with different events such as before paving, during concrete hardening, and after first cracking, etc. RESULTS : Thermal strain rate (TSR) concept is defined as the linear strain variations with temperature changes and restraints rate of longitudinal steel against environmental loadings (especially thermal loading) with different cases is defined as degree of restraint(DOR). New concept of DOR could be indirect indicator of crack width behaviors of CRCP. CONCLUSIONS : Before paving, DOR of longitudinal steel is almost same at the coefficient of thermal expansion of steel ($12.44m/m/^{\circ}C$) because of no restraint boundary condition. After concrete pouring, DOR is gradually changed into -1 due to concrete stiffness developing with hydration. After first cracking at crack induced area, values of DOR are around -3~-5. The negative DOR stands for the crack width behavior instead of steel strain behavior. During winter season, DOR reached to -5.77 as the highest, but spring this values gradually reduced as -1.7 as the lowest. Based on this observation, we can presume crack width decreased over time within the time frame of this study. This finding is not consistent with the current theory on crack width variations over time, so further study is necessary to identify the causes of crack width reducing. One of the reasons could be related to concrete stress re-distribution and stress relaxation.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2011

In this study, the chloride penetration tests were performed for the initially cracked reinforced concrete members. The chloride diffusion characteristics and the critical crack width are compared, and the properties of self-healing are investigated. According to the test results, the chloride penetration resistance was greatly reduced as the surface crack width increased. When the mineral admixtures are added, the chloride penetration resistance of uncracked specimens were effectively increased, however, in case of the blast furnace slag and fly ash, the cracked specimens showed the more reduced resistance than OPC case, inversely. Also, the critical width was $29{\mu}m$, on average, for immersion test. The crack width with $4{\sim}15{\mu}m$ was restored by self-healing, The parts restored by self-healing were seemed to be visually restored, however, the chloride penetration resistance was not restored, perfectly.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.719-741
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• 2014

Monitoring surface cracks is important to ensure the health of concrete structures. However, traditional visual inspection to monitor the concrete cracks has disadvantages such as subjective inspection nature, associated time and cost, and possible danger to inspectors. To alter the visual inspection, a complete procedure for automated crack assessment based on adaptive digital image processing has been proposed in this study. Crack objects are extracted from the images using the subtraction with median filter and the local binarization using the Niblack's method. To adaptively. determine the optimal window sizes for the median filter and the Niblack's method without distortion of crack object an optimal filter size index (OFSI) is proposed. From the extracted crack objects using the optimal size of window, the crack objects are decomposed to the crack skeletons and edges, and the crack width is calculated using 4-connected normal line according to the orientation of the local skeleton line. For an image, a crack width nephogram is obtained to have an intuitive view of the crack distribution. The proposed procedure is verified from a test on a concrete reaction wall with various types of cracks. From the crack images with different crack widths and patterns, the widths of cracks in the order of submillimeters are calculated with high accuracy.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.1875-1882
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• 1993

Variable thickness plates are commonly used as structural members in the majority of industrial sectors. Previous fracture mechanics researches on variable thickness plates were limited to mode I loading cases. In practice, however, cracks are usually located inclined to the loading direction. In this respect, combined mode(mode I/II) stress intensity factors $K_{I}$ and $K_{II}$ at the crack tip for a variable thickness plate were obtained by 3-dimensional finite element analysis. Variable thickness plates containing a slant edge crack were chosen. The parameters used in this study were dimensionless crack $length{\lambda}$, slant $angle{\alpha}$, thickness $ratio{\beta}$ and width ratio{\omega}$. Stress intensity factors were calculated by crack opening displacement(COD) and crack sliding displacement(CSD)method proposed by Ingraffea and Manu.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.402-405
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• 2006

Inner support regions of continuous steel and concrete composite bridge decks, transverse crackings are easely developed by tensile forces due to live loads and primary and secondary effects of concrete shrinkage. Since these cracks have an influence on the durability of bridge decks, crack width should be controlled within allowable limit values. Although crack width is a function of steel stress, bar diameter, bar spacing, etc, the current code for the amount of longitudinal reinforcements provides only one value of 2 percent of the concrete area. In order to investigate cracking bahaviors of composite girders with the variation of the longitudinal steel ratios, negative flexural tests are conducted on five composite girders and crack width and crack spacing are compared to ACI Code and Eurocode. Based on the test results, it is discussed the suitability of the current code for the longitudinal steel ratio.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.407-424
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• 2016

This study tests ten full-size simple-supported beam specimens with the high-strength reinforcing steel bars (SD685 and SD785) using the four-point loading. The measured compressive strength of the concrete is in the range of 70-100 MPa. The main variable considered in the study is the shear-span to depth ratio. Based on the experimental data that include maximum shear crack width, residual shear crack width, angle of the main crack and shear drift ratio, a simplified equation are proposed to predict the shear deformation of the high-strength reinforced concrete (HSRC) beam member. Besides the post-earthquake damage assessment, these results can also be used to build the performance-based design for HSRC structures. And using the allowable shear stress at the peak maximum shear crack width of 0.4 and 1.0 mm to suggest the design formulas that can ensure service-ability (long-term loading) and reparability (short-term loading) for shear-critical HSRC beam members.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.99-108
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• 2012

Ultra High Performance Concrete(UHPC) has compressive strength higher than 180 MPa. The use of steel fibers in the dense UHPC matrix increases tensile strength, ductility and bond strength between UHPC and rebars. However, to apply the advance material behavior of UHPC to the design of a structure, we need design formulas. The crack formula is one of them. This paper investigated experimentally the bond behavior of a rebar and K-UHPC, the UHPC developed by Korea Institute of Construction Technology, and, modified CEB-FIP crack formula based on the test. In addition, this paper tested the crack behavior of K-UHPC reinforced with rebars to verify the modified crack formula. The result showed that the modified formula is reasonable to predict the width of cracks in the reinforced K-UHPC structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2005

The present paper deals with the seismic response analysis and the evaluation of most likely failure modes for a water storage structure. For the stress analysis, a 3-D mathematical model has been adopted to represent the structure appropriately. The structure has been analyzed for both static and seismic loads. Seismic analysis has been carried out considering the hydrodynamic effects of the contained water. Based on the stress analyses results, the most likely failure modes viz. tensile cracking and compressive crushing of concrete for the various structural elements; caused by the seismic event have been investigated. Further an attempt has also been made to quantify the initial leakage rate and average emptying time for the structure during seismic event after evaluating the various crack parameters viz. crack-width and crack-spacing at the locations of interest. The results are presented with reference to peak ground acceleration (PGA) of the seismic event. It has been observed that, an increase in PGA would result in significant increase in stresses and crack width in the various structural members. Significant increase in initial leakage rate and decrease in average emptying time for the structure has also been observed with the increase in PGA.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.13 no.3 s.55
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• pp.197-208
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is the evaluation of the estimation equation of "CEP-FIP Model Code 1990(1991)", recently included in the domestic "Concrete Structure Design Code(2007)" in consideration of the concrete strength. As evaluation tools, crack element model applied a detailed bond-slip model as well as crack width obtained from experimental results by earlier researches. The crack element model is verified through the comparison with experimental results. The important variables in the estimation equation for the crack width in CEP-FIP Model Code 1990 are the tension stiffening effect and mean bond stress proposed in the paper to be improved in consideration of the concrete strength.