• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.266-274
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• 2002

The impact-echo test, which is to evaluate the integrity of concrete and masonry structures nondestructively, is an excellent method in the practical application. However, there are cases that the Impact-Echo testing nay result in the low reliability. In this study, the reliability of the Impact-Echo testing was investigated through the numerical simulation of the Impact-Echo testing. The finite element analysis and the analysis based on the dynamic stiffness matrix method was incorporated for the numerical simulation, in which the cases of a sandwiched shear stiffness, an incr＋easing or decreasing stiffness, and a homogeneous stiffness. Based on the results of the analysis were considered, this study proposed the approaches to Improve the reliability of the Impact-Echo testing.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1991.04a
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• pp.105-110
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• 1991

The conventional high-frequency testing method is difficult to detect flaw in concrete because the high frequency stress wave is strongly attenuated due to the large grain size and heterogeneous structure. For restoration of this problem, we develop the stu요 of flaw detection in large concrete block containing various artificial flaws by low frequency spectrum anlysis of impact-echo waveforms. This impact-echo testing method is possible to determine the flaw size, shape and location in large concrete block even if required some attention in case of containing reinforcing steel bar.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.427-439
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• 2006

Accurate estimates of in place thickness of early age (3 to 28 days after casting) concrete pavements are needed, where a thickness accuracy of ${\pm}6mm$ is desired. The impact-echo method is a standardized non-destructive technique that has been applied for this task. However, the ability of impact-echo to achieve this precision goal is affected by Vp (measured) and ${\beta}$ (assumed) values that are applied in the computation. A deeper understanding of the effects of these parameters on the accuracy of impact-echo should allow the technique to be improved to meet the desired accuracy goal. In this paper, the results of experimental tests carried out on a range of concrete slabs are reported. Impact-echo thickness estimation errors caused by material property gradients and sensor type are identified. Correction factors to the standard analysis method are proposed to correct the identified errors and to increase the accuracy of the standard method. Results show that improved accuracy can be obtained in the field by applying these recommendations with the standard impact-echo method.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1998.10b
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• pp.743-748
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• 1998

As nation's infrastructure is getting old, nondestructive evaluation of existing structures and construction quality control are getting important. In this thesis, flaw detection techniques of concrete members with asphalt using impact echo test were introduced. This techniques are based on stress wave propagation. In this field impact echo test, As load is gradually increased, frequency is increased. From this change of frequency through impact echo test, we can detect that the crack of bridge ascends and what the depth of crack is.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2004

Impact-echo is a method for non-destructive testing of concrete structure. This method is based on the use of impact-generated stress wave which is propagated and reflected from internal flaws within concrete structure and external surface. In this study, we performed non-destructive testing using impact-echo methods for safety diagnosis of civil engineering and building structures. There are testing cases for the three models having one-dimensional form ; The first case is the measurement of thickness change of the model, the second is the detection of cavity in the model, and the third is the predictions of the lining thickness and the position of the cavity under tunnel lining condition.

• Architectural research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2020

This study aims to verify a method for accurately estimating the sizes of the column, slab, and beam members of concrete structures using the impact echo method, which is a nondestructive testing method. The concrete specimens are designed and fabricated with six single-layer frame specimens composed of columns, slabs, and beam members based on three strengths of 24, 30, and 40 MPa. To estimate the sizes of the members according to the member types of concrete structures, the experiment was performed using the impact echo method. As a result of estimating the sizes of the concrete column members using the impact echo method, the error rate is 2.9%. As a result of estimating the depth of the concrete beam members, the error rate is 9.7%. And, as a result of estimating the thickness of the concrete slab members, the error rate is 2.4%. These results confirmed that quality control of the members of concrete structures is possible by estimating their sizes using a non-destructive testing method.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.171-177
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• 2011

The feasibility of using low cost, unpowered, unshielded dynamic microphones is investigated for cost effective contactless sensing of impact-echo signals in concrete structures. Impact-echo tests on a delaminated concrete slab specimen were conducted and the results were used to assess the damage detection capability of the low cost system. Results showed that the dynamic microphone successfully captured impact-echo signals with a contactless manner and the delaminations in concrete structures were clearly detected as good as expensive high-end air pressure sensor based non-contact impact-echo testing.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.33-40
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• 2005

Impact-echo test, a kind of simple and economical method to evaluate the integrity of drilled piles has some limitations to use because the stress wave can be generated only on the head of a pile and the wave propagation in the pile with surrounding soils are very complicated. Numerical analyses and model tests in the laboratory have shown that both the ratio of length to diameter of a pile and the stiffness ratio of pile to soil have influence on the resolution of testing results. Full scale testing piles which have artificial defects were used to verify the capability of impact-echo technique as a tool for the pile integrity evaluation. Behaviour of the reflected signal of stress wave was investigated according to the type of defects. Elastic modulus of the pile was calculated using the wave velocity in the pile and the unconfined strength of concrete specimen. Influences of the stiffness difference between the pile and the ground on the characteristics of a wave signal were also examined.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.924-929
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• 2003

A majority of infrastructures has been deteriorated over time. Therefore, it is very important to verify the quality of construction, and the level of structural deterioration in existing structures, to ensure their safety and functionality. Many researchers have studied non-destructive testing (NDT) methods to identify structural problems in existing structures. The impact echo technique is one of the widely used NDT techniques. The impact echo technique has several inherent problems, including the difficulties in P-wave velocity evaluation due to inhomogeneous concrete properties, deterioration of evaluation accuracy where multiple reflection boundaries exist, and the influence of the receiver location in evaluating the thickness of the tested structures. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to propose an enhanced impact echo technique that can reduce the aforementioned problems and develop a Virtual Instrument for the application via a thickness evaluation technique which has same technical background to find deterioration in concrete structures. In the proposed impact echo technique, transfer function from dual channel system analysis is used, and coherence is improved to achieve reliable data. Also an averaged signal -ensemble- is used to achieve more reliable results. From the analysis of transfer function, the thickness is effectively identified.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2024

We propose a new method for detecting voids behind tunnel concrete linings using the impact-echo method that is based on continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and a convolutional neural network (CNN). We first collect experimental data using the impact-echo method and then convert them into time-frequency images via CWT. We provide a CNN model trained using the converted images and experimentally confirm that our proposed model is robust. Moreover, it exhibits outstanding performance in detecting backfill voids and their status.