Concrete Non Destructive Testing

Non Destructive Testing for Concrete:

Advancing Equipments & Market
Chaitanya Raj Goyal

t is estimated that the present consumption of concrete in the world is of the order of 10 billion tones every year. Humans consume no material except water in such tremendous quantities. Perhaps that is the reason that makes concrete technology such a widely researched upon field with testing of concrete taking up major portion of the pie. There has always been a need for evaluating in place properties of concrete for quality assurance and evaluation of existing conditions. Ideally these methods should be non destructive so that they do not damage the

structure and permit re-testing at the same locations to analyze the changes with time. When compared to steel, the non destructive testing (NDT) methods for concrete have been developed & have evolved at a slower pace since it is an inherently more difficult material to test than steel. The application of non destructive evaluation (NDE) methods for quality assurance of concrete structures has made considerable progress in the recent decade. Driven by technology and knowledge transfer from other areas of materials testing, a ver-

satile toolbox of methods for the investigation of RC structures has emerged from research. In the area of simulation and 3D-reconstruction of ultrasonic and radar data, progress was driven by more powerful computers and development of state of the art software for 3D re-construction and visualization of data. Today non destructive techniques are increasingly being used to diagnose various building structures thus creating a large market which has attracted various national & international players in the Testing Equipment & Instrumentation industry. Owing to their non-invasiveness

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they are the only choice in some cases promoting quick, easy & safe working. Growing market for NDT: An insight into the causes & factors Even though concrete is one of the most widely used construction material, the manner in which it is presently prepared & used to form structures, leaves many desires unfulfilled. This may mostly be attributed to lack of proper quality control & supervision during the course of construction. Often safety & durability of structures are given the green signal thereby permitting poor quality of construction. When one builds a structure, it has to perform satisfactorily over the reasonably expected life. At present the test used mainly as a basis of quality control is compression testing of cubes & it represents the potential strength of the concrete used. The main parameters determining the quality of concrete is its composition, compaction & curing. At the most it can be ensured that the composition of concrete going into the cubes & that going into the structure is the same; there may be some scope of differences in this case also. However, the methods of compaction & curing may be & usually are different for the cubes & the structural members. This is why the results obtained on cubes may not truly represent the quality of concrete in the structure. Hence the unquestionable need for non destructive testing arises. Also, non destructive testing can be applied to both old and new structures. For new structures, the principal applications are likely to be for quality control or the resolution of doubts about the quality of materials or construction. The testing of existing structures is usually related to an assessment of structural integrity or adequacy. In either case, if destructive testing alone is used, for instance, by removing cores for compression testing, the cost of coring and testing may only allow a relatively small number of tests to be carried out on a large structure which may be misleading. Non destructive testing can be used in those situations as a pre-

liminary to subsequent coring. Typical situations where non destructive testing may be useful are, as follows: 1. Quality control of pre-cast units or construction in situ; 2. Removing uncertainties about the acceptability of the material supplied owing to apparent non-compliance with specification; 3. Confirming or negating doubt concerning the workmanship involved in batching, mixing, placing, compacting or curing of concrete; 4. Monitoring of strength development in relation to formwork removal, cessation of curing, pre-stressing, load application or similar purpose; 5. Location and determination of the extent of cracks, voids, honeycombing and similar defects within a concrete structure; 6. Determining the concrete uniformity, possibly preliminary to core cutting, load testing or other more expensive or disruptive tests; 7. Determining the position, quantity or condition of reinforcement increasing the confidence level of a smaller number of destructive tests; 8. Determining the extent of concrete variability in order to help in the selection of sample locations representative of the quality to be assessed;

9. Confirming or locating suspected deterioration of concrete resulting from such factors as overloading, fatigue, external or internal chemical attack or change, fire, explosion, environmental effects; 10. Assessing the potential durability of the concrete; 11. Monitoring long term changes in concrete properties; 12. Providing information for any proposed change of use of a structure for insurance or for change of ownership. Thus due to the involvement of such numerous critical factors, we have witnessed a considerable growth in the NDT market in India & across the globe. Need of the hour: Some popular NDT equipments Broadly speaking there are 2 types of NDT methods for concrete on which the testing equipments are based on. The first type consists of the following methods which are used to calculate the compressive strength: surface hardness, penetration resistance, pullout, break off and maturity. Most of these methods are not truly non destructive and are also called 'partially destructive' because they cause some surface damage that must be repaired. The damage however is minor as com-

Schmidt hammer testing

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Concrete Non Destructive Testing

pared to that caused by core drilling. The second type includes those methods which measure other properties to concrete such as pulse velocity, moisture content, density, thickness & dynamic modulus of elasticity. Also included in this category are infrared thermography techniques, stress wave and radar which are used to locate delaminations, voids and cracks in concrete. Here are some NDT equipments which have gained popularity in the construction industry lately. Rebound Hammer A Schmidt hammer, also known as a rebound hammer, is a device to measure the elastic properties or strength of concrete or rock, mainly surface hardness and penetration resistance. Consultants, clients and contractors prefer to use it primarily due to its speed and ease of use. This is basically a surface hardness test & should be used only on concrete where the surface has not carbonated as the results tend to be very high & unrealistic on a carbonated surface. Hence it should be used for younger concrete than for older one. In case of old concrete the carbonated layer should be chipped off or grounded to expose the core concrete & then the hammer test should be conducted. The rebound is also affected if the surface is moist. Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Tester (PUNDIT) This is used for assessing the quality & integrity of concrete by passing ultrasound waves through the specimen / RCC member under test. This equipment can also be used to determine the presence of honeycombs, voids, cracks etc. The instrument consists of a transmitter & a receiver (two probes). The time of travel for the wave to pass from the transmitter to the receiver when kept opposite to each other is recorded in the ultrasonic instrument. The distance between the two probes (path length) can be physically measured. Hence Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity = Path length / Time. This velocity in concrete can be related to its compressive strength. The

Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity testing

key to this testing is not using the equipment but to know where to use it and interpretation of results obtained after testing. Electrical Resistivity Meter This device is used to carry out assessment of the quality/ uniformity of concrete at various depths. The instrument consists of a four probe device. Electrical current is passed through the outer probes & the potential drop is measured by the inner probes. From the current & voltage drop measurements, the resistivity of concrete can be measured. Surface resistivity measurement provides extremely useful information about the state of a concrete structure. Not only has it been proven to be directly linked to the likelihood of corrosion and the corrosion rate, recent studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between resistivity and chloride diffusion rate and even to determination of early compressive strength. Apart from quality / strength of concrete it can also give information about the total thickness of the specimen under test & the backing material (in case of tunnel lining or pavements where only one surface is available for testing & no other test can give the said information). The backing material could be concrete, water, air or rock in case of

tunnel lining. This makes it one of the most versatile NDT methods for concrete. Half-cell Potential Test Meter This instrument can be used to evaluate the probability of corrosion activity taking place at the point where the measurement of potentials is taken from a half-cell, typically a coppercopper sulfate half-cell. An electrical contact is established with the exposed steel & the half-cell is moved across the surface of concrete for measuring the potentials. Readings are however weather and moisture sensitive. It normally requires that concrete is moist before conducting the tests. Cover Meter or Rebar Locators This gadget is useful for the determination of concrete cover, location of embedded rebars & estimation of size of embedded rebars. The instrument is based on the magnetic technique & is calibrated for different purposes. The cover thickness is important from the point of view of estimation of initiation of corrosion. The location & estimation of bar diameter becomes useful in structures where there are no structural drawings available. Carbonation Depth Detector The quality of concrete cover holds

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nation is again dependent upon various factors for reliability. The conversion of concrete core (typically 3 or 4 inch diameter core) strength into 150 mm saturated cube strength depends upon the effect of coring; shape factor; size effect; direction of coring with respect to placing of concrete and the h/d ratio. With so many factors contributing to the final 150 mm saturated cube strength, the strength variation may be + / - 10% - 15%. However, it can be used to confirm the results of UPV differing largely in the values & also for co-relation. Hence the UPV & core results should be judiciously used, interpreted & co-related. Future of NDT in India
The half-cell potential test meter

the key to the process of corrosion initiation. Hence when the concrete cover is carbonated the process of corrosion enhances due to the reduction in the alkalinity surrounding the rebars. The estimation of carbonation depth thus helps in predicting the period of protection from corrosion. This is mostly used in conjunction with other NDT tests. Chlorides (as Cl) Determination from Chlorimeter Apart from (or after) the carbonation of concrete, the natural protection to steel is lost & thus the chlorine present in the atmosphere is free to attack the embedded steel. Above a threshold value of chlorine ions along with degree of alkalinity of concrete, the rate of corrosion increases. Hence it becomes important to estimate the chlorine ion content to comment on the corrosion of steel.

In-situ Water Permeability Apparatus This instrument is useful for comparing different grades of concrete depending on the permeation of water through the concrete. It consists of a chamber that can be sealed after filling water. After keeping the desired level of pressure, as the water penetrates the pressure drops & a micrometer screw gauge fitted with the instrument is used to keep the pressure constant. The penetration of the screw gauge is used to determine the penetration of water in volume. Core Drilling & Testing Machine These are used to conduct a partially destructive test that is used to corelate the various other properties of the concrete viz. UPV, electrical resistivity, rebound number etc. It is customary to take cores of 4 inch diameter for compressive strength determination. Concrete core drilling for strength determi-

These NDT methods are being used extensively despite the lack of testing standards for many of the methods. The development of testing standards is critical for proper application and expanded use of NDT methods for evaluation of concrete constructions. The non destructive testing should however be carried out by agency having sound & sufficient knowledge & experience in this field as well as behavior of concrete. With the growing rate of deterioration of the nation's infrastructure, the necessity for including NDT and field instrumentation in engineering curriculum has become more apparent than ever before. Bringing these developments into the state of practice, into everyday use on construction sites by trained engineers rather than researchers still remains a major challenge in India. To earn the trust of industry, the reliability of these NDT methods should be established and adequately verified to prove that their application is worth the additional expense and effort. With the improving focus on structure quality and construction industry becoming highly receptive to new and upgraded technology, the future bodes well for the Indian NDT sector. Photo Courtesy:
www.matcoinc.com, www.suntechassociates.com www.ndtjames.com, www.ntu.edu.sg www.pcte.com.au, www.hellotrade.com

Rebar locator

Core Drilling Machine

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