Assessment of concrete quality using non-destructive techniques, Ghatghar project, Maharashtra, India

The Ghatghar Pumped Storage Scheme involves the construction of two roller compacted concrete dams. Cracks were observed when the 14.5m × 478 m dam across the river Pravara near Ghatghar village, Maharashtra, India was about 4.1 m high on the right side and 3.3 m high on the left side. A total of 1,206 measurements were made using seismic refraction, sonic tomography and ultrasonic testing to assess the competency of the dam, covering a volume of 5029.86 m3. The ultrasonic testing conducted on five RCC cores and an equal number of rock cores recovered from the body of the dam and site indicated a velocity of 4,050–4,250 and 3,900–4,100 m/s, respectively. The velocities obtained from the seismic refraction and tomographic survey ranged between 3,375 and 4,625 m/s and from the ultrasonic survey 3,800–4,300 m/s. The velocity range obtained from both the seismic (refraction and tomographic) and ultrasonic methods indicates good to excellent quality concrete and the results show the visible cracks have not affected the integrity of the dam.