• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.230-237
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• 1997

As concrete structure is getting old and decrepit, its inspection and diagnosis is getting important. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate the soundness of structure using non-destructive tests for effective repairs and maintenances. But, applications of non-destructive tests in tunnel have been used restrictively, due to accessibility only from one side in tunnel lining and presence of tunnel installations. Recently, the various non-destructive techniques have been studied. Especially, ground penetrating radar(GPR) and impact echo (IE) methods have been researched for tunnel inspection. In this study, the applicability of impact echo test in tunnel lining inspection has been investigated. This paper described the tunnel inspection for lining thickness and internal flaw using impact echo tests. Model tests were carried out using impact echo test systems on two concrete models, Model I is measuring for lining thickness, Model II is detecting for internal flaw. Also, the test were applied for lining inspections in a tunnel constructed by NATM. From the results of impact echo tests, we have concluded that impact echo test is a very useful and effective technique for inspecting the concrete tunnel linings.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.94-100
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• 2000

Many nondestructive test methods used for metallic materials have some limit in application to concrete materials due to their heterogeneity. Impact echo method utilizes the resonance frequency of reflected seismic waves from defects or the boundary between two materials and can be applied to investigate the interior of concrete structures. In this study, a field data acquisition system for the impact echo method was assembled and field tests under various conditions were performed. The impact echo method was applied for investigating thickness/defects/backfilling of concrete structures/tunnel lining/airport pavement. The applicability of the impact echo method to the civil engineering field was substantiated by providing results within $10\%$ errors.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.17-21
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• 2017

This paper is to grasp the use of impact-echo response signal induced from impacting an object for the assessment of compressive strength of construction materials nondestructively and to propose the test results. For this study, an impact device was devised and used for impacting an object by an initial rotating free falling impact and following repetitive impacts from the rebound action which eventually disappears. Concrete test specimens which had been mixed for different strengths were tested and the impact echo response signal was measured for each test specimen. The total sound signal energy which is assessed from integrating the impact-echo response signal was compared with the directly measured compressive strength for each specimen. The comparison showed that the total sound signal energy has a direct relationship with the directly measured compressive strength and the results clearly indicated that the compressive strength of construction materials can be assessed nondestructively using total sound signal energy which is assessed from integrating the impact-echo response signal induced from impacting an object.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.199-207
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• 2008

As infrastructures are being deteriorated, nondestructive evaluation of existing structures and construction quality control are increasingly demanded. The importance of predicting compressive strength of concrete structure is also gradually increasing in construction industry. The estimation of concrete compressive strength is a critical factor of the construction management and quality control. This study has been conducted using Schmidt hammer test and Impact echo method, which are nondestructive test methods for the comparison of the concrete compressive strength. It is focusing to examine the relationship between compressive strength of concrete and rebound number by Schmidt hammer test result by Impact echo method. It was found that concrete compressive strength and rebound number have a close correlation.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.105-112
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• 2013

In this study, the applicability of impact-echo method for assessment of residual strength of fire-damaged concrete is investigated. A series of standard fire test is performed to obtain fire-damaged concrete specimens. Impact-echo tests are executed on the specimens and the responses are analyzed. Compressive strengths of the fire-damaged concrete are evaluated and correlated with the ultrasonic wave velocities determined from the impact-echo responses. The effectiveness of impact-echo based ultrasonic wave velocity measurement for assessment of residual strength of fire-damaged concrete is discussed.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.659-666
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• 2015

In this paper, various influence factors on the impact-echo test which is an effective method in characterizing defects such as such as the delamination in the concrete structures were studied. The side to thickness ratio(a/h), the relative position of impacting and sensing points over the delamination that have great effects on the flexural and impact-echo(thickness) modes were investigated and examined by the parametric finite element analysis. As a result, the flexural modes dominate in the case of a/h > 2 and the thickness mode was more evident when a/h < 2. With regard to the relative position of impact source and sensing point to the defect, the flexural modes dominate even when either the loading or sensing point was over the delamination defect. However, the thickness mode prevails when both the impacting and sensing points are over the solid region beyond the delamination area.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.36-41
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• 2013

Previous study showed that delamination region in concrete structures can be successfully visualized using mode shapes of delaminated concrete section. However, modal tests for this purpose to obtain mode shapes of the delaminated concrete section may not be applicable in practice since, to correctly obtain the mode shapes of the section, the location and the shape of the delamination region in a structure should be known in advance. Unfortunately those are normally unknown in a real structure. Therefore, a moving forward test method may be useful to obtain the mode shapes of the concrete section when the location and the shape of the delamination region are not known. In this study, impact-echo testing based mode shape estimation technique is proposed and experimentally validated for visualization of delamination region.