• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2017

Effectively monitoring the concrete cracks is an urgent question to be solved in the structural safety monitoring while cracks in hydraulic concrete structures are ubiquitous. In this paper, two experiments are designed based on the measuring principle of Pulse-Pre pump Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis (PPP-BOTDA) utilizing Brillouin optical fiber sensor to monitor concrete cracks. More specifically, "V" shaped optical fiber sensor is proposed to determine the position of the initial crack and the experiment illustrates that the concrete crack position can be located by the mutation position of optical fiber strain. Further, Brillouin distributed optical fiber sensor and preinstall cracks are set at different angles and loads until the optical fiber is fractured. Through the monitoring data, it can be concluded that the variation law of optical fiber strain can basically reflect the propagation trend of the cracks in hydraulic concrete structures.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.155-174
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• 2023

High performance concrete (HPC) has been extensively used in thin overlay for repair purpose due to its excellent strength and durability. This paper presents an experiment, where the sensor-instrumented HPC overlays have been followed by dynamic strain and moisture content monitoring for 1 year, under normal traffic. The vibrating wire and soil moisture sensors were embedded in overlay before construction. Four given HPC mixes (2 original mixes and their shrinkage-modified mixes) were used for overlays to contrast the strain and moisture results. A calibration method to accurately measure the moisture content for a given concrete mixture using soil moisture sensor was established. The monitoring results indicated that the modified mixes performed much better than the original mixes in shrinkage cracking control. Weather condition and concrete maturity at early age greatly affected the strain in concrete. The strain in HPC overlay was primarily in longitudinal direction, leading to transverse cracks. Additionally, the most moisture loss in concrete occurred at early age. Its rate was very dependent on weather. After one year, cracking survey was carried out by vision to verify the strain direction and no cracks observed in shrinkage modified mixes.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.739-744
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• 2000

Concrete structures generally have cracks, so for the safety and durability of structures, studies to detect cracks using nondestructive tests have been treated in great deal. In order to assure the reliability of concrete structure, microscopic fracture behavior and internal damage progress of concrete under the loading should be fully understood. The purpose of this study predicts location of initial crack and measures direction of crack propagation for on-line monitoring before the crack really grows in structures by using two-dimensional Acoustic Emission(AE) source location based on rectangular method with three-point bending test. This will allow efficient maintenance of concrete structure through monitoring of internal cracking based on AE method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.155-171
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• 2014

Various monitoring techniques are now available for structural health monitoring and Acoustic Emission (AE) is one of them. One of the major advantages of the AE technique is its capability to locate active cracks in structural members. AE crack locating approaches are affected by the signal attenuation and dispersion of elastic waves due to inhomogeneity and geometry of reinforced concrete (RC) members. In this paper, a novel technique is described based on signal processing and sensor arrangement to process multisensory AE data generated by the onset and propagation of cracks and is validated with experimental results from an in-situ load test. Considering the sources of uncertainty in the AE crack location process, a methodology is proposed to capture and locate events generated by cracks. In particular, the relationship between AE events and load is analyzed, and the feasibility of using the AE technique to evaluate the cracking behavior of two RC slab strips during loading to failure is studied.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.310-312
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• 2015

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) have been gaining a special attention in the U.S. recently because it is capable of getting aerial footages conveniently and cost effectively, but also because of its potential threat to the safety of our society. Regarding the benefits, one can easily find successful cases. For example, remote controlled or pre-programmed unmanned aircraft help ranch owners monitor their livestocks or crop harvesting status cost-effectively without having to hire human pilots. The professionals in the construction industry also acknowledge the benefits they could gain from using SUAS. Some firms already use a small unmanned aircraft for monitoring their construction activities, which may help project managers figure out construction progress, resolve disputes in real time, and make proactive decisions for quality control. However, there are many technical challenges that my hinder the use of small unmanned aircraft in the construction industry. This paper explores opportunities and challenges in using unmanned aircraft to monitor concrete cracks on the surface of containment building in the nuclear power plant.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.593-599
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• 2022

In this study, a crack monitoring system capable of detecting cracks based on image processing techniques was developed to effectively check cracks, which are the main damage of concrete structures, and a program capable of imaging and analyzing cracks was developed using machine vision. This system provides objective and quantitative data by replacing the appearance inspection that checks cracks with the naked eye. The verification of the development system was applied to the construction site of a self-healing concrete water tank to monitor the crack and the amount of change in the crack width according to age. In the case of crack width detected by image analysis, the difference from the measured value using a digital microscope was up to 0.036 mm, and the crack healing effect of self-healing concrete could be confirmed through the reduction of crack width.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.215-220
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• 1999

Concrete micro-cracks that are grown while the structures are under construction or in service, propagate gradually or rapidly by external forces and environmental effects. As described above, almost concrete structures generally have cracks, so for the safety and durability of structures, studies to detect cracks using nondestructive tests have been treated in great deal. The purpose of this study is to evaluate characteristics of AE signals detected from notched concrete beams bending test with different loading using one of nondestructive test, Acoustic Emission (AE) method. Furthermore this study predicts the location of initial crack and measures direction of crack propagation for on-line monitoring before the crack really grows in structures by using two-dimensional AE source location based on rectangular method with three-point bending test. This will allow efficient maintenance of concrete structures through monitoring of internal cracking based on acoustic emission method.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.475-486
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• 2023

Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) is an important task of civil engineering structure monitoring and inspection, but minor damage such as small cracks in local structure is difficult to observe. If cracks continued expansion may cause partial or even overall damage to the structure. Therefore, monitoring and detecting the structure in the early stage of crack propagation is important. The crack detection technology based on machine vision has been widely studied, but there are still some problems such as bad recognition effect for small cracks. In this paper, we proposed a deep learning method based on sweep signals to evaluate concrete surface crack with a width less than 1 mm. Two convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are used to analyze the one-dimensional (1D) frequency sweep signal and the two-dimensional (2D) time-frequency image, respectively, and the probability value of average damage (ADPV) is proposed to evaluate the minor damage of structural. Finally, we use the standard deviation of energy ratio change (ERVSD) and infrared thermography (IRT) to compare with ADPV to verify the effectiveness of the method proposed in this paper. The experiment results show that the method proposed in this paper can effectively predict whether the concrete surface is damaged and the severity of damage.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.373-388
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• 2022

A USW based diagnostic procedure is presented for estimating the depth of surface-breaking cracks. The diagnosis is demonstrated on seven lab-scale SFRC beam specimens, which are subjected to the CMOD controlled three-point bending test to create real bending cracks. Then, the recorded multiple ultrasonic signals are examined with the signal processing techniques, including wavelet transform and two-dimensional Fourier transform, to investigate the relationships between the crack depth and two diagnostic indices, namely the attenuation coefficient and dispersion index (DI). Finally, the reliabilities of these indices for depth estimation are verified with the visually measured crack depths as well as the crack features obtained with a digital image processing algorithm. It is found that the DI outperforms the attenuation coefficient in depth estimation, where this index displays good agreement with the visual inspection for 86% of the inspected specimens.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.107-116
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• 1999

The damage in concrete structures generally starts with microcracking and thus it is important to find and explore these microcracks in concrete in order to ensure appropriate safety and serviceability. The purpose of the present study is to identify the damage characteristics of concrete structures due to cracking by employing the acoustic emission techniques. A comprehensive experimental study has been done. The cracking damage under tensile and flexural loadings have been identified and the bond damage between steel and concrete have been also characterized. It is seen that the amplitudes and energy level of Acoustic Emission(AE) events are found to be relatively small for bond cracking damages and large for tensile cracking damages. The characteristic equations of the AE events for various cracking damages have been proposed based on the present test data. The internal microcracks are progressively developed ahead of a visible actual crack and the present study clearly exhibits these damage mechanism for various types of cracking in concrete. The present study provides useful data which can be used to identify the various types of cracking damages in concrete structures. This will allow efficient maintenance of concrete structures through monitoring of internal cracking based on acoustic emission.