Structural health monitoring: detection of concrete flaws using ultrasonic pulse velocity

Assessment of concrete structures is a mandatory task of engineers to keep the structure safe and well performing. Non-destructive testing methods seem to be more appropriate for this task. They are reliable, quick and does not cause significant damage to the concrete surface. The non-destructive testing application is an interesting strategy to monitor the conditional strategy of the concrete structures, such as homogeneity of material, density, strength evolution, internal defects and flaws in concrete structures. This paper aims to study the homogeneity of the concrete structure using contour mapping technique by interpretation of ultrasonic pulse velocity values. For this study, the authors performed an ultrasonic pulse velocity test on beams and columns of an old car parking shed made of reinforced cement concrete. The contour map generated using velocity values of UPV shows the level of homogeneity. The variations of color in the contour map indicate the presence of defects in the structure. This interpretation strategy will be a suitable tool for assessment of concrete structures. © 2018, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.