Rayleigh wave velocity along a straight survey line on a concrete plate is measured in order to compare different non-destructive data acquisition techniques. Results from a rolling non-contact data acquisition system using air-coupled microphones are compared to conventional stationary accelerometer results. The results show a good match between the two acquisition techniques. Rolling measurements were found to provide a fast and reliable alternative to stationary system for stiffness determination. However, the non-contact approach is shown to be sensitive to unevenness of the measured surface. Measures to overcome this disadvantage are discussed and demonstrated using both forward and reverse rolling measurements.

Ultrasonic tomography is a powerful tool for identifying defects within an object or structure. But practical application of ultrasonic tomography to solids is often limited by time consuming transducer coupling. Air-coupled ultrasonic measurements may eliminate the coupling problem and allow for more rapid data collection and tomographic image construction. This research aims to integrate recent developments in air-coupled ultrasonic measurements with current tomography reconstruction routines to improve testing capability. The goal is to identify low velocity inclusions (air-filled voids and notches) within solids using constructed velocity images. Finite element analysis is used to simulate the experiment in order to determine efficient data collection schemes. Comparable air-coupled ultrasonic signals are then collected through homogeneous and isotropic solid (PVC polymer) samples. Volumetric (void) and planar (notch) inclusions within the samples are identified in the constructed velocity tomograms for a variety of transducer configurations. Although there is some distortion of the inclusions, the experimentally obtained tomograms accurately indicate their size and location. Reconstruction error values, defined as misidentification of the inclusion size and position, were in the range of 1.5-1.7%. Part 2 of this paper set will describe the application of this imaging technique to concrete that contains inclusions.

Applications of ultrasonic tomography to concrete structures have been reported for many years. However, practical and effective application of this tool for nondestructive assessment of internal concrete condition is hampered by time consuming transducer coupling that limits the amount of ultrasonic data that can be collected. This research aims to deploy recent developments in air-coupled ultrasonic measurements of solids, described in Part 1 of this paper set, to concrete in order to image internal inclusions. Ultrasonic signals are collected from concrete samples using a fully air-coupled (contactless) test configuration. These air coupled data are compared to those collected using partial semi-contact and full-contact test configurations. Two samples are considered: a 150 mm diameter cylinder with an internal circular void and a prism with $300mm{\times}300mm$ square cross-section that contains internal damaged regions and embedded reinforcement. The heterogeneous nature of concrete material structure complicates the application and interpretation of ultrasonic measurements and imaging. Volumetric inclusions within the concrete specimens are identified in the constructed velocity tomograms, but wave scattering at internal interfaces of the concrete disrupts the images. This disruption reduces defect detection accuracy as compared with tomograms built up of data collected from homogeneous solid samples (PVC) that are described in Part 1 of this paper set. Semi-contact measurements provide some improvement in accuracy through higher signal-to-noise ratio while still allowing for reasonably rapid data collection.

Freezing and thawing cycles induce deterioration and strength degradation of concrete structures. This study presumes that a large quantity of contact-type defects develop due to the freezing and thawing cycles of concrete and evaluates the degree of defects based on a nonlinearity parameter. The nonlinearity parameter was obtained by an impact-modulation technique, one of the nonlinear ultrasonic methods. It is then used as an indicator of the degree of contact-type defects. Five types of damaged samples were fabricated according to different freezing and thawing cycles, and the occurrence of opening or cracks on a micro-scale was visually verified via scanning electron microscopy. Dynamic modulus and wave velocity were also measured for a sensitivity comparison with the obtained nonlinearity parameter. The possibility of evaluating strength degradation was also investigated based on a simple correlation of the experimental results.

The Impact Echo method can be used to measure the thickness of concrete plate like structures. Measurements are based on the identification of a clear thickness resonance frequency which can be difficult in very thick or highly attenuative plates. In this study the detectability of the measured resonant frequency is enhanced by time domain summation of signals with different source receiver spacing. The proposed method is based on the spatial and temporal properties of the first higher symmetric zero group velocity Lamb mode (S1-ZGV) which are described in detail. No application dependent tuning or filtering is needed which makes the method robust and suitable for implementation in automatic IE thickness measurements. The proposed technique is exemplified with numerical data and field data from a thick concrete wall and a highly attenuative asphalt concrete layer.

The stress dependence of ultrasonic wave velocity is known as the acoustoelastic effect. This effect is useful for stress monitoring if the acoustoelastic coefficient of a subject medium is known. The acoustoelastic coefficients of metallic materials such as steel have been studied widely. However, the acoustoelastic coefficient of concrete has not been well understood yet. Basic constituents of concrete are water, cement, and aggregates. The mix proportion of those constituents greatly affects many mechanical and physical properties of concrete and so does the acoustoelastic coefficient of concrete. In this study, influence of the water-cement ratio (w/c ratio) and the fine-coarse aggregates ratio (fa/ta ratio) on the acoustoelastic coefficient of concrete was investigated. The w/c and the fa/ta ratios are important parameters in mix design and affect wave behaviors in concrete. Load-controlled uni-axial compression tests were performed on concrete specimens. Ultrasonic wave measurements were also performed during the compression tests. The stretching coda wave interferometry method was used to obtain the relative velocity change of ultrasonic waves with respect to the stress level of the specimens. From the experimental results, it was found that the w/c ratio greatly affects the acoustoelastic coefficient while the fa/ta ratio does not. The acoustoelastic coefficient increased from $0.003073MPa^{-1}$ to $0.005553MPa^{-1}$ when the w/c ratio was increased from 0.4 to 0.5. On the other hand, the acoustoelastic coefficient changed in small from $0.003606MPa^{-1}$ to $0.003801MPa^{-1}$ when the fa/ta ratio was increased from 0.3 to 0.5. Finally, it was also found that the relative velocity change has a linear relationship with the stress level of concrete.

One of the most commonly used techniques to strengthen steel reinforced concrete structures is the application of externally bonded patches in the form of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) or recently, textile reinforced cements (TRC). These external patches undertake the tensile stress of bending constraining concrete cracking. Development of full-field inspection methodologies for fracture monitoring are important since the reinforcing layers are not transparent, hindering visual observation of the material condition underneath. In the present study acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) are applied during four-point bending tests of large beams to follow the damage accumulation. AE helps to determine the onset of fracture as well as the different damage mechanisms through the registered shifts in AE rate, location of active sources and change in waveform parameters. The effect of wave propagation distance, which in large components and in-situ can well mask the original information as emitted by the fracture incidents is also discussed. Simultaneously, crucial information is supplied by DIC concerning the moments of stress release of the patches due to debonding, benchmarking the trends monitored by AE. From the point of view of mechanics, conclusions on the reinforcing contribution of the different repair methodologies are also drawn.

We propose an effective methodology using electromechanical impedance characteristics for estimating the remaining tensile force of tendons and simultaneously detecting damages of the anchorage blocks. Once one piezoelectric patch is attached on the anchor head and the other is bonded on the bearing plate, impedance responses are measured through these two patches under varying tensile force conditions. Then statistical indices are calculated from the impedances, and two types of relationship curves between the tensile force and the statistical index (TE Curve) and between statistical indices of two patches (SR Curve) are established. Those are considered as database for monitoring both the tendon and the anchorage system. If damage exists on the bearing plate, the statistical index of patch on the bearing plate would be out of bounds of the SR curve and damage can be detected. A change in the statistical index by damage is calibrated with the SR curve, and the tensile force can be estimated with the corrected index and the TE Curve. For validation of the developed methodology, experimental studies are performed on the scaled model of an anchorage system that is simplified only with 3 solid wedges, a 3-hole anchor head, and a bearing plate. Then, the methodology is applied to a real scale anchorage system that has 19 strands, wedges, an anchor head, a bearing plate, and a steel duct. It is observed that the proposed scheme gives quite accurate estimation of the remaining tensile forces. Therefore, this methodology has great potential for practical use to evaluate the remaining tensile forces and damage status in the post-tensioned structural members.

The evolution of the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) of a piezoelectricity (PZT) sensor was investigated to determine the setting times of cement paste in this study. The PZT sensor coated with non-conductive acrylic resin was embedded in fresh cement paste and the EMI signatures were continuously monitored. Vicat needle test and semi-adiabatic calorimetry test were also conducted to validate the EMI sensing technique. Significant changes in the EMI resonance peak magnitude and frequency during the setting period were observed and the setting times determined by EMI sensing technique were relevant to those measured by Vicat needle test and semi-adiabatic calorimetry test.

This paper describes a smart structural system, which uses smart materials for real-time monitoring and active control of bolted-joints in steel structures. The goal of this research is to reduce the possibility of failure and the cost of maintenance of steel structures such as bridges, electricity pylons, steel lattice towers and so on. The concept of the smart structural system combines impedance based health monitoring techniques with a shape memory alloy (SMA) washer to restore the tension of the loosened bolt. The impedance-based structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques were used to detect loosened bolts in bolted-joints. By comparing electrical impedance signatures measured from a potentially damage structure with baseline data obtained from the pristine structure, the bolt loosening damage could be detected. An outlier analysis, using generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution, providing optimal decision boundaries, has been carried out for more systematic damage detection. Once the loosening damage was detected in the bolted joint, the external heater, which was bonded to the SMA washer, actuated the washer. Then, the heated SMA washer expanded axially and adjusted the bolt tension to restore the lost torque. Additionally, temperature variation due to the heater was compensated by applying the effective frequency shift (EFS) algorithm to improve the performance of the diagnostic results. An experimental study was conducted by integrating the piezoelectric material based structural health monitoring and the SMA-based active control function on a bolted joint, after which the performance of the smart 'self-monitoring and self-healing bolted joint system' was demonstrated.

Floods have been known to be one of the main causes of bridge collapse. Contrary to earthquakes, flood events tend to occur repeatedly and more frequently in rainfall areas; flood-induced damage and collapse account for a significant portion of disasters in many countries. Nevertheless, in contrast to extensive research on the seismic fragility analysis for civil infrastructure, relatively little attention has been devoted to the flood-related fragility. The present study proposes a novel methodology for deriving flood fragility curves for bridges. Fragility curves are generally derived by means of structural reliability analysis, and structural failure modes are defined as excessive demands of the displacement ductility of a bridge under increased water pressure resulting from debris accumulation and structural deterioration, which are known to be the primary causes of bridge failures during flood events. Since these bridge failure modes need to be analyzed through sophisticated structural analysis, flood fragility curve derivation that would require repeated finite element analyses may take a long time. To calculate the probability of flood-induced failure of bridges efficiently, in the proposed framework, the first order reliability method (FORM) is employed for reducing the required number of finite element analyses. In addition, two software packages specialized for reliability analysis and finite element analysis, FERUM (Finite Element Reliability Using MATLAB) and ABAQUS, are coupled so that they can exchange their inputs and outputs during structural reliability analysis, and a Python-based interface for FERUM and ABAQUS is newly developed to effectively coordinate the fragility analysis. The proposed framework of flood fragility analysis is applied to an actual reinforced concrete bridge in South Korea to demonstrate the detailed procedure of the approach.