Stress Wave Technique for Detecting Decay of Structural Members in Ancient Structures

The safety-evaluation of ancient wood structures has been executed with only visual inspection. The application of NDE(nondestructive evaluation) is required because the visual inspection has many restrictions. Among many NDE techniques, the stress wave technique was used in this research. This study focused on evaluating the extent of decay in members of ancient structures, using stress wave nondestructive technique. For application of stress wave technique to ancient structures, the threshold time which divides members into categories according to degree of decay should be determined in advance. Stress wave timer (Metriguard Model 239A) was used in this study, specimens used in this research were the members obtained from six ancient structures. All specimens were identified as Hard Pine(Pinus densiflora S. et Z. or Pinus thunbergii P.) by microscope. Each member was tested with stress wave passing radially through the pith. In this study, the stress wave time of $12{\mu}s$/cm could distinguish between sound and decayed specimens with accuracy of 77.5 percent. Also, decayed specimens could be separated into moderate and severe categories by stress wave time of $20{\mu}s$/cm. Among the three decay location groups (exterior, mixed, interior), the exterior group could be classified into sound, moderate and severe decay with the greatest accuracy. Stress wave transit time was not sensitive to small decay pockets located in interior of the member.