Determination of Early Age Mortar and Concrete Strength by Ultrasonic Wave Reflections
by Thomas Voigt, (corresponding author), (Diplom-Ingenieur, Res. Assoc, Ctr. for Advanced Cement-Based Materials, Northwestern Univ., 2145 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208 E-mail: th-voigt@northwestern.edu), Yilmaz Akkaya, (Res. Assoc., Ctr. for Advanced Cement-Based Materials, Northwestern Univ., 2145 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208; also at Istanbul Tech. Univ., Civ. Engrg. Fac., Maslak, 80626 Istanbul, Turkey. E-mail: yakkay@northwestern.edu), and Surendra P. Shah, (Prof. for Civ. Engrg., Dir. of Ctr. for Advanced Cement-Based Materials, Northwestern Univ., 2145 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208. E-mail: s-shah@northwestern.edu)
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, Vol. 15, No. 3, May/June 2003, pp. 247-254, (doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0899-1561(2003)15:3(247))
Access full text
Purchase Subscription
Permissions for Reuse 
| Document type: |
Journal Paper |
| Abstract: |
The in situ testing of early age concrete strength is crucial for determining the time of form removal from concrete elements, opening highways to traffic, or applying prestress to steel reinforcement. A nondestructive ultrasonic technique, which measures the reflection loss of ultrasonic transverse waves at a concrete-steel interface, is presented in this paper. The aim is to compare wave reflection measurements on mortar and concrete to strength. It is shown that the reflection loss is linearly related to the strength gain of mortar and concrete at early ages. The experiments have revealed a relationship between the homogeneity of the tested materials and the consistency of the reflection measurements. The repetition of simultaneous measurements of wave reflections and compressive strength on mortar results in similar strength-reflection loss relationships. Multiple measurements on the same concrete gave multiple strength-reflection loss relationships. The accuracy of the strength predictions made with the proposed method is discussed and compared to that of other nondestructive test methods. |
|
