NDT methods for

concrete
• It is often necessary to test concrete structures after the concrete has
hardened to determine whether the structure is suitable for its designed use.
Ideally such testing should be done without damaging the concrete.

• The tests available for testing concrete range from the completely non-
destructive, where there is no damage to the concrete, through those where
the concrete surface is slightly damaged, to partially destructive tests, such
as core tests and pull out and pull off tests, where the surface has to be
repaired after the test.

• The range of properties that can be assessed using non-destructive tests and
partially destructive tests is quite large and includes such fundamental
parameters as density, elastic modulus and strength as well as surface
hardness and surface absorption, and reinforcement location, size and
distance from the surface.

• In some cases it is also possible to check the quality of workmanship and

structural integrity by the ability to detect voids, cracking and delamination.
 Quality control of pre-cast units or construction in situ
 Removing uncertainties about the acceptability of the material supplied
owing to apparent non-compliance 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, pre-stressing, load application or similar purpose
 Land determination of the extent of cracks, voids, honeycombing and
similar defects within a concrete structure
 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
 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.
Popular NDT Tests for Concrete Used in field are:
• Rebound Hammer Test- RH Test
• Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity- UPV Test
• Combined Method UPV & RH Test
• Core Extraction for Compressive Strength Test
• Ingredient Analysis of Concrete Core
• Concrete Cover Measurement by Laser Based
Instruments.
 Rebound
Hammer

In 1982 a Swiss engineer, Ernst Schmidt, developed a test hammer for

measuring the hardness of concrete by the rebound principle.
• Principle

The rebound hammer is principally a surface hardness tester with little apparent
theoretical relation between the strength of concrete and the rebound number of the
hammer.

• Description
The hammer weighs about 1.8 kg and is suitable for use both in a laboratory and
in the field.

The main components include the outer body, the plunger, the hammer mass and
the main spring.

The rebound distance is measured on an arbitrary scale marked from 10 to 100.

The rebound distance is recorded as a rebound number.
Method of testing
 Method of testing

• The plunger is perpendicular to the test surface.

• Gradually push the instrument toward the test surface until the hammer
impacts.
• After impact, maintain pressure on the instrument if necessary, depress the
button on the side of the instrument to lock the plunger in its retracted
position.
• Read the rebound number on the scale to the nearest whole number and
record the rebound number.
• Take ten readings from each test area.
• No two impact tests shall be closer together than 25 mm (1 in).
• Examine the impression made on the surface after impact, and if the
impact crushes or breaks through a near-surface air void, disregard the
reading and take another reading.
 Method of testing

• Each hammer is furnished with correlation curve developed by the

manufacturer using standard cube specimens.
 Factors affecting rebound hammer test

• Surface Smoothness
• Age of Concrete
• Moisture Content
• Surface Carbonation
• Aggregate, air voids, and steel reinforcement
• Temperature
• Calibration of the Rebound Hammer

Ref : Limitations of RH test

Ultrasonic testing
 Fundamental principle

• A pulse of longitudinal vibrations is produced by an electro-

acoustical transducer, which is held in contact with one surface
of the concrete under test.
• When the pulse generated is transmitted into the concrete from
the transducer using a liquid coupling material such as grease
or cellulose paste, it undergoes multiple reflections at the
boundaries of the different material phases within the concrete.
 Description

• The equipment consists essentially of an electrical pulse

generator, a pair of transducers, an amplifier and an
electronic timing device for measuring the time interval
between the initiation of a pulse generated at the
transmitting transducer and its arrival at the receiving
transducer.
• It should be capable of measuring transit time over path
lengths ranging from about 100 mm to the maximum
thickness to be inspected to an accuracy of ±1%.
• Generally the transducers used should be in the range of 20
to 150 kHz although frequencies as low as 10 kHz may be
used for very long concrete path lengths and as high as 1
MHz for mortars and grouts or for short path lengths.
Measurements of pulse
velocity
 Application

• Determination of the uniformity of concrete in and between

members

• Measurement of changes occurring with time in the properties of

concrete

• Correlation of pulse velocity and strength as a measure of concrete

quality.

• Determination of the modulus of elasticity and dynamic Poisson's

ratio of the concrete.
GROUND PENETRATING
RADAR
 Principle
• Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a non-destructive technique with a wide
range of potential applications in the testing of concrete.
• It is gaining acceptance as a useful and rapid technique for non-destructive
detection of delaminations and the types of defects, which can occur in bare or
overlaid reinforced concrete decks.
• It also shows potential for other applications such as measurement of the
thickness of concrete members and void detection.
• Because of the nature of the microwave pulses that are employed by the radar
systems used .
• Since the applications are no longer limited to the probing of subsurface
geological features, GPR is often called impulse radar or just radar, particularly
when applied to inspection of concrete structures.
 Equipment for the GPR technique
• The physical phenomenon recorded by a GPR system is the
reflection of low-level electromagnetic energy at frequencies
ranging from 20 MHz to 2 GHz .
• The short-pulse radar systems used in applications related to
the inspection of concrete operate by transmitting a single
pulse of three half sine waves.
• A basic radar system consists of a control unit, a monostatic
antenna (i.e. a box with two antenna units in it that are used
for transmitting and receiving), a VDU or oscillographic
recorder, and a power converter for DC operation.
• Antenna units are available for a variety of frequencies and are
the most important factor for the performance of a radar
system. Those used for concrete inspection have frequencies
ranging from 500 to 1500 MHz.
• Radargrams are visualizations of radar signals collected over
time.
• The amplitude is plotted as a colour-coded bar along the Y
axis, with X axis is the time axis and being advanced by trigger
 IMPACT-ECHO
• This is an effective method of locating large voids or delamination's in
plate like structures, e.g. pavements or bridge decks, where the defect is
parallel to the test surface.
• A mechanical impact produces stress waves of 1 to 60 kHz. The
wavelengths of from 50 mm to 2000 mm propagate as if in a
homogeneous elastic medium.
 Equipment for impact-echo testing
• Type A Test System comprising a Data Acquisition
System, one cylindrical hand held transducer unit, 200
replacement lead disks for the transducer, Ten spherical
impactors 3 mm to 19 mm in diameter (used to vary the
contact time), one 3.7 m cable and one 7.6 m cable.

• Type B Test System comprising a Data Acquisition

System, two cylindrical hand-held transducer units, 200
replacement lead disks for the transducer, ten spherical
impactors 3 mm to 19 mm in diameter, one 3.7 m
cable, one 7.6 m cable and a spacer bar to use with the
 Applications

• Measuring the thickness of concrete pavements.

• Voids have also been located in grouted tendon ducts of a post-

tensioned highway bridge.

• Delaminations have also been found in 200 mm thick concrete

bridge deck with a 100 mm asphalt overlay.

• Cracking has also been detected in the beams and columns of

parking garage.
• ULTRASOUND PULSE ECHO
With Ultrasound Pulse Echo testing it is possible to
detect internal features in concrete with one sided
access to the structure.

• The principle is based on the measurement of the time

interval between transmitting an ultrasonic impulse into
the structure and receiving an echo.

• The distance to an inner reflector can be determined, if

the velocity of sound is known through the simple
equation d=vL/2T (T: transit time, vL: Velocity of the
longitudinal wave, d: distance).

• The frequency of the ultrasound must be as low as 50

 Thickness measurement of concrete slabs

• The phase shift superposition technique can be applied

to determine the thickness of a concrete slab.
• The test is performed in a bistatic arrangment by
measuring several A-scans (20+) with varying distances
between the transmitting and the receiving transducer.
• The velocity of sound must be known, e.g. by testing it
on a core.
• For a given assumed thickness of the concrete slab, the
phase shift for the backface echo in each A-scan is
calculated and the A-scans time is shifted accordingly
and averaged.
• If true thickness is the same, the backface reflection is
amplified and any scattering is reduced because it
appears statistical.