• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.681-695
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• 2021

Many existing transmission or communication towers designed several decades ago have undergone nonreversible performance degradation, making it hardly meet the additional requirements from upgrades in wind load design codes and extra services of electricity and communication. Therefore, a new-type non-destructive reinforcement method was proposed to reduce the on-site operation of drilling and welding for improving the quality and efficiency of reinforcement. Six built-up steel angle members were tested under compression to examine the reinforcement performance. Subsequently, the cyclic loading test was conducted on a pair of steel angle tower sub-structures to investigate the reinforcement effect, and a simplified prediction method was finally established for calculating the buckling bearing capacity of those new-type retrofitted built-up steel angles. The results indicates that: no apparent difference exists in the initial stiffness for the built-up specimens compared to the unreinforced steel angles; retrofitting the steel angles by single-bolt clamps can guarantee a relatively reasonable reinforcement effect and is suggested for the reduced additional weight and higher construction efficiency; for the substructure test, the latticed substructure retrofitted by the proposed reinforcement method significantly improves the lateral stiffness, the non-deformability and energy dissipation capacity; moreover, an apparent pinching behavior exists in the hysteretic loops, and there is no obvious yield plateau in the skeleton curves; finally, the accuracy validation result indicates that the proposed theoretical model achieves a reasonable agreement with the test results. Accordingly, this study can provide valuable references for the design and application of the non-destructive upgrading project of steel angle towers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.3
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• pp.313-323
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• 2020

Non-destructive tests are commonly used in construction industry to access the quality and strength of concrete. However, till date there is no non-destructive testing method that can be adopted to evaluate the bond condition of reinforced concrete beams. In this regard, the presented research work details the use of ultra-sonic pulse velocity test method to evaluate the bond condition of reinforced concrete beam. A detailed experimental research was conducted by testing four identical reinforced concrete beam samples. The samples were loaded in equal increments till failure and ultra-sonic pulse velocity readings were recorded along the length of the beam element. It was observed from experimentation that as the cracks developed in the sample, the ultra-sonic wave velocity reduced for the same path length. This reduction in wave velocity was used to identify the initiation, development and propagation of internal micro-cracks along the length of reinforcement. Using the developed experimental methodology, researchers were able to identify weak spots in bond along the length of the specimen. The proposed method can be adopted by engineers to access the quality of bond for steel reinforcement in beam members. This allows engineers to carryout localized repairs thereby resulting in reduction of time, cost and labor needed for strengthening. Furthermore, the methodology to apply the proposed technique in real-world along with various challenges associated with its application have also been highlighted.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.48-51
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• 2004

This paper is to study the response of flat plate slab-column connections consisting of various types of shear reinforcement and steel plate subjected to gravity loadings, mainly punching shear forces using the non-destructive testing, spectral analysis of surface waves and structural experiments. The base specimen failed due to punching shear generated from the gravity. The three other types of slab shear reinforcement and steel plate showed effective in resisting punching shear for these types of connections under gravity loading. This study has focused in evaluating the velocity response of a Surface wave during the early age as the poured concrete specimens have been hardened, the possibility of damage detection in the slab-column connection and the relationship between the punching shear forces and the surface wave velocities under the condition that the punching shear forces had gradually increased until the flat plate slab in slab-column connection had been failed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.933-936
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• 2006

Many non-destructive inspection methods have recently been developed for concrete structures. However, these methods can obtain only physical information of concrete, such as crack depth, delamination or position of reinforcement etc. near its surface. If chemical information is required, sampling and componential analyses may be earned out. Non-destructive method that can detect deterioration factors such as carbonation, chloride content or sulfate attack would be an outstanding innovation in inspection methodologies. In this research, near-infrared spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence analysis were applied for componential analysis for concrete. These methods are very effective compared to traditional methods, therefore, working efficiency and maintenance cost will be improved.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.63-81
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• 2010

We present the shape determination method of 3-D reinforcement corrosion based on observed temperature on concrete surface. The non-destructive testing for reinforcement corrosion in concrete using a heat image on concrete surface have been proposed by Oshita. The position of the reinforcement of corrosion or the cavity can be found using that method. However, the size of those defects can not be precisely measured based on the heat image. We therefore proposed the numerical determination system of the shape for the reinforcement corrosion using the observed temperature on the concrete surface. The adjoint variable method is introduced to formulate the shape determination problem, and the finite element method is employed to simulate the heat transfer problem. Some numerical experiments and the examination for the number of the observation points are shown in this paper.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.5
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• pp.637-650
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• 2021

The paper presents an investigation of the widely varying mechanical performance and behaviour of steel and Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) reinforced concrete beams using non-destructive techniques of Acoustic Emission (AE) and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) under four-point bending. Laboratory experiments are performed on both differently reinforced concrete beams with 0.33%, 0.52% and 1.11% of tension reinforcement against balanced section. The results show that the ultimate load-carrying capacity increases with an increase in tensile reinforcement in both cases. In addition to that, AE waveform parameters of amplitude and number of AE hits successfully correlates and picks up the divergent mechanism of cracking initiation and progression of failure in steel reinforced and GFRP reinforced concrete beams. AE activity is about 20-30% more in GFRP-RC beams as compared to steel-RC beams. It was primarily due to the lower modulus of elasticity of GFRP bars leading to much larger ductility and deflections as compared to steel-RC beams. Furthermore, AE XY event plots and longitudinal strain profiles using DIC gives an online and real-time visual display of progressive AE activity and strains respectively to efficaciously depict the crack evolution and their advancement in steel-RC and GFRP-RC beams which show a close matching with the micro-and macro-cracks visually observed in the actual beams at various stages of loading.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.24-31
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• 2011

In order to measure corrosion level of reinforcement rebar in RC structures, non-destructive test methods which are concrete surface current density method and infrared thermographic technique were employed to measure corrosion levels. Experimental test parameters were various levels of corrosion states(0, 1, 3, 5, 7% of weight loss) and concrete cover depth(30 mm, 40 mm) and two different reinforcing rebar arrangements. The larger amount of concrete surface current density, the higher corrosion level in reinforcement rebar. The laboratory conditions which are ambient temperature and humidity have negligible effect on the infrared thermographical data. After analysis of current density and temperature distribution from concrete surface, corrosion level of reinforcement rebar embedded in concrete can be measured qualitatively based on the amount of electric current and heat flux.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.147-152
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• 2015

Corrosion of steel reinforcement is a major factor in the deterioration of harbour and bridge structure. Steel corrosion in concrete must be checked for assessing the condition of a reinforced concrete structure. There are several ways how to measure the corrosion condition of reinforced concrete, but the corrosion potential measurement is a very simple, rapid, cost-effective and non-destructive technique to evaluate the severity of corrosion in reinforced concrete structure, therefore commonly used by engineers. However some particular situations may not relate to the reinforcement corrosion probability and a simple comparison of the corrosion potential data with the ASTM C876 Standard on steel reinforcement corrosion probability could be meaningless and not give reliable informations because of environment factors as oxygen concentration, chloride content, concrete resistance. Therefore this paper explains the risk of corrosion assessment in reinforced concrete structure and how many factors can affect the reliability of the corrosion potential data.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.75-83
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• 2008

The R.C Building will be superannuated as time passes by heavy load and serviceability. Methods of damage detection are used a visual angle of human or non-destructive test in the R.C Building. In case of the latter, Problems of damage detection are occurred to directions of steel bar. Elastic waves are difficult to assaying test using 1 axial type of accelerometer in reinforced concrete. In this study, fundamental studies for estimations using 3 axial type of accelerometer are discussed oscillator of elastic waves when embedded glass tube pipe or steel bar in flexible concrete specimens.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.37-50
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• 2001

Recently, as tunnel structure is getting old, many deformations and defects have been occurred. As tunnel has the characteristics of underground structure, the estimation of the cause of deformation is very difficult. Then, it is necessary to investigate the state of tunnel lining and to estimate the deformation cause and safety for tunnel. In this study, inspection and diagnosis system for effective maintenance in tunnel was researched. Firstly, non-destructive techniques such as GPR (ground penetrating radar), impact echo test, and infrared thermal techniques were applied to tunnel lining inspection. Tunnel lining analysis system was developed to analyze the stability of tunnel. And, tunnel soundness evaluation system was developed to find the probable causes and indicate the method for repair and reinforcement for tunnel.