Lecture 13

Non-Destructive Testing of Concrete

Rebound Hammer Probe Penetration Pull out Test Break-off Test

Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

What is NDT / NDE ?

Test methods which measure physical properties in place or can be used to detect flaws, and cause no significant structural damage to concrete Non-destructive vs. Semi-destructive tests
Some test methods may cause minor damage like drilled cores, load testing, pin penetration, break off and pull off tests These are considered semi-destructive

Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

NDT / NDE
Obtain the properties of concrete in-situ Primarily, all engineers need some estimate of strength Other parameters also can be identified

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Other advantages of NDT

Member dimensions Location of cracking, delamination, and debonding Degree of consolidation, and presence of voids and honeycomb Steel reinforcement location and size Corrosion activity of reinforcement Extent of damage from freezing and thawing, fire, or chemical exposure
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Why Non-Destructive Testing ?

Determine the suitability of the structure to serve its intended functions Be able to predict the performance without being invasive Invasive techniques are location specific and expensive Invasive techniques can cause further damage to the structure Invasive techniques do not often allow examination of large areas
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Why Non-Destructive Testing ?

Concrete in actual structures may exhibit a different behavior than the lab-tested ones how do we know if the tested material is similar to the one in service?
Specimen preparation issues in site and the concreting for the structure Curing procedures between specimen and the structure Size effects Laboratory testing anomalies Sample uniformity
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Application of NDT
Both new and old structures New structures
Quality control Dispute resolution about the material / construction quality

Old / Existing structures

Adequacy of load carrying capacity
Age related material distress Load related overload Construction quality related
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Typical situations when NDT is useful - I

quality control of pre-cast units or construction in situ removing uncertainties about the acceptability of the material supplied owing to apparent noncompliance with specification confirming or negating doubt concerning the workmanship involved in batching, mixing, placing, compacting or curing of concrete monitoring of strength development in relation to formwork removal, cessation of curing, prestressing, load application or similar purpose location and determination of the extent of cracks, voids, honeycombing and similar defects within a concrete structure
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Typical situations when NDT is useful - II

determining the concrete uniformity, possibly preliminary to core cutting, load testing or other more expensive or disruptive tests determining the position, quantity or condition of reinforcement increasing the confidence level of a smaller number of destructive tests determining the extent of concrete variability in order to help in the selection of sample locations representative of the quality to be assessed
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Typical situations when NDT is useful - III

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 assessing the potential durability of the concrete monitoring long term changes in concrete properties providing information for any proposed change of use of a structure for insurance or for change of ownership.
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Situations where NDT can be used

to investigate the homogeneity of concrete mixing to determine the density and strength of concrete in a structure to determine the location of reinforcing bars and the cover over the bars to determine the extent of defects such as corrosion to determine the location of in-built wiring, piping, ducting, etc. to determine whether internal defects such as voids, cracks, delaminations, honeycombing, lack of bonding with reinforcing bars, etc. exist in concrete to determine if there is a bond between epoxy bonded steel plates and concrete members.
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Summary of NDT Methods

See attached sheets

Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Schmidt Hammer / Rebound Hammer (ASTM C 805)

Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Schmidt Hammer
Based on the same principle of why a superball bounces Mainly tests the surface hardness of concrete, then related to strength Fundamentally a complex problem of impact loading and stress-wave propagation
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Schmidt Hammer
Springs stretched Hammer released Hammer Impacts And Plunger Rebounds Indicator Records rebound

Rebound number 10 to 100 Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Some things to note

Can be used in horizontal, vertical or inclined positions Hammer should be perpendicular to the surface under testing Should develop a correlation between the rebound number and the concrete being tested (the aggregate type is very significant) Higher rebound number, higher the strength Dont rely too much on the calibration curve supplied with the instrument
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Limitations of Rebound hammer - I

Near surface measurement will not get properties of the core concrete Smoothness of surface
Surface has to be smooth, variations between methods of surface finishing

Size, shape and rigidity of the surface

If the concrete moves (cracking, poor surface) the numbers are not reliable

Age of the specimen

Should not do on low strength concrete at early ages the aggregate effect dominates and will get faulty readings
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Limitations of Rebound hammer - II

Related to stiffness than strength Surface and internal moisture conditions
High rebound number for wet specimens than air cured dry specimens Presaturation preferred

Aggregate dependence Type of cement

High alumina cement shows higher strength Supersulfated cement 50% lower than Type I

Carbonation of the surface

Carbonation increases surface density
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Rebound number-Strength relationship

Guidebook on NDT for Concrete

Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Rebound number-strength relationship

Different types of gravel as fine aggregate

Different types of Coarse aggregates

Guidebook on NDT for Concrete

Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Probe Penetration (Windsor probe)

Drives a probe into the concrete with a known amount of force Another Impact test

James Instruments, Cement Assoc of Canada

Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Probe penetration (ASTM C 803)

Shoots an alloy probe into concrete
6.3 mm dia, 79.5 mm length

Exposed length of the probe measured, and related to the compressive strength of concrete Much higher energy than rebound hammer Influenced by the surface smoothness of the concrete Influenced by the presence of aggregates Much larger damage area than the rebound hammer
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Relating strength and penetration depth

Hard Aggregates

Soft Aggregates

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Damage zone in probe penetration

Need to identify the location of reinforcing bars since the probe will be affected Pin penetration modified version of the probe requires less energy than the probe

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Pullout Test (ASTM C 900)

Concrete subjected to static loading unlike Rebound hammer and probe penetration

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Pullout test
Measures the maximum force required to pull an embedded metal insert with an enlarged head from a concrete specimen or structure Force is applied by a tension jack, or center-hole ram, that reacts against the concrete surface through a reaction ring concentric with the insert A roughly cone-shaped fragment of the concrete is extracted as the insert is pulled out Diameter of the conic fragment d2 is determined by the inner diameter of the reaction ring, and the small diameter d1 is determined by the insert-head diameter
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Pulled out specimens

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Advantages and Disadvantages

Produces a well-defined fracture surface in the concrete Measures a static strength property Empirical relationships can be developed between the pullout strength and the compressive strength of the concrete Pullout strength governed by that portion of concrete located next to the conic frustum defined by the insert head and the reaction ring Limited to new construction insert has to be embedded The empirical relationship is applicable to only the particular test configuration and concrete materials used in the correlation testing

Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Break-off test (ASTM C 1150)

Measures the force required to break off a cylindrical core from a larger concrete mass The measured force and a pre-established strength relationship are used to estimate the inplace compressive strength

Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening

Break-off test
Plastic sleeve inserted into fresh concrete to form the core Also, the test specimens can be prepared in hardened concrete by using a special core bit to cut the core and the counter bore Can be used to evaluate concrete in both new and existing construction

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Break-off test procedure

Sleeve is removed and a special loading jack is placed into the counter bore A pump supplies hydraulic fluid to the jack that applies a horizontal force to the top of the core The reaction to the horizontal force is provided by a ring that bears against the counter bore The force on the core is gradually increased by operating the pump until the core ruptures at its base The hydraulic fluid pressure is monitored with a pressure gage having an indicator to register the maximum pressure achieved during the test The maximum pressure gage reading in units of bars [1 bar = 0.1MPa (14.5 psi)] is called the break-off number of the concrete.
Neithalath, Spring 2006, CE 455/555 Structural Damage: Assessment, Repair, and Strengthening