Investigation of Cracks in Concrete Pavements by Nondestructive Techniques
Investigation of Cracks in Concrete Pavements by Nondestructive Techniques
Investigation of Cracks in Concrete Pavements by Nondestructive Techniques
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INTRODUCTION:
Rigid concrete pavements often suffer cracking during their lifetime. For the purpose
of good repair and maintenance, it is important to identify the cause, the extent and
the suitable repair material and technique. Practically, there are two basic types of
concrete pavements that can be used:
1. Reinforced concrete slabs.
2. Plain concrete slabs.
Worldwide, both systems are used and developed. Therefore, concrete pavements can
be constructed as one of the following systems:
1. Jointed unreinforced concrete slabs having well designed and detailed contraction
and expansion joints.
2. Jointed reinforced concrete slabs having well designed and detailed contraction
and expansion joints.
3. Continuously reinforced concrete slabs having no contraction or expansion joints.
4. Continuously reinforced concrete slabs having no contraction or expansion joints
with 100 mm bituminous surfacing. In this system, the concrete slabs, actually,
forms the roadbase.
∗
Corresponding Author: Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Hashemite University,
Zarqa 13115, Jordan.
E-mail: [email protected]
CONCRETE PAVEMENTS CRACKS
Cracks in concrete pavements can classified into the following major categories:
1. Joint cracks.
2. Surface cracks.
3. Structural cracks.
4. Cracks due to deterioration.
The cracks and defects in concrete pavements have been discussed in detail
(Mildenhall and Northcott 1986, Northcot 1992 and Wright and Dixon 2004 ).
It is important for engineers to understand the possible causes, extent and dangers of
any cracks before final judgment. Hence, the following paragraphs discuss the
cracking and crack patterns in concrete pavements.
Joint Cracks
a
a
a
c
b
Surface Cracks
Surface cracks are those non-structural cracks that appear on the surface (excluding
those of chemical deterioration). Figure 2 (Northcott 1992) shows possible patterns of
these cracks.
a b c
Structural Cracking
Structural cracks are those related to excessive stresses due to one or more of the
following:
1. Excessive wheel load.
2. Differential settlement of soil beneath pavement.
3. Stresses induced by contraction of restrained concrete.
4. Stresses induced by expansion of continuous concrete.
These cracks can take various shapes, position and length. They may extend to
limited depths and / or lengths, or they may extend to the whole depth and / or
length of any section of the pavement slab.
e d
f
g
i i
h
These cracks form due to the environmental effects and the accompanied chemical
deterioration of the concrete. The main causes are:
1. Sulfate attack.
2. Alkali-silicate reaction.
3. Corrosion of steel reinforcement.
4. Biodeterioration.
Well-designed and constructed concrete should suffer low deterioration. Therefore,
cracking due to these factors will only occur if special conditions are available. Such
Cracks and defects in concrete pavements due to these causes, their possible causes
and description is summarized in Table 4.
Direct determination of the strength or any other property of concrete implies that
concrete specimens be extracted, shipped and tested at laboratories. This procedure
would result in the actual strength (or property) of concrete, but would cause trouble
and delay in evaluating existing structures. Because of that, special techniques had
been developed in which attempts were made to measure some concrete property,
other than strength, and then relate it to strength, durability or any other property.
Some of such properties of concrete are its hardness, its resistance to penetration or
projectiles, its rebound number, its resonance frequency, and its ability to allow
ultrasonic pulse velocity to propagate through it. Concrete electrical properties, its
ability to absorb scatter, and transmit x-rays and gamma rays, its response to nuclear
activation, and its acoustic emission allow us to estimate its moisture content, density,
thickness, and its cement content. However, the term “non-destructive” is given to
any test which does not damage or affect the structural behavior of the elements and
also leaves the structure in an acceptable condition for the client. Malhotra 1976
presented a comprehensive literature survey for the nondestructive methods normally
used for concrete testing and evaluation. However, a successful non-destructive test is
the one that can be applied to concrete structures in the field, portable and easily
operated with the least amount of cost. Various literature have been introduced in this
(All references)
The test is described in ASTM C597 and BS 1881: Part 203. The principle of the test
is that the velocity of sound in a solid material, V, is a function of the square root of
the ratio of its modulus of elasticity, E, to its density, d, viz.;:
1
gE
V = ƒ( )2 (1)
d
where g is the gravity acceleration.
The method starts with the determination of the time required for a pulse of vibrations
at an ultrasonic frequency to travel through concrete. Once the velocity is determined,
an idea about quality, uniformity, condition and strength of the concrete tested can be
drawn out.
It is clear from the previous equation that the velocity is dependent on the modules of
elasticity of concrete. Relationships between pulse velocity and modulus of elasticity
of concrete are shown in references Neville 1995, Nilsen et al 1992, Philleo 1955 and
Willets 1958. Monitoring modulus of elasticity for concrete through results of pulse
velocity is not normally recommended. On the other hand, it has been shown that the
strength of concrete and its modulus of elasticity are related (ACI 318-95, Sharma et
al 1960).
In the test, the time the pulses take to travel through concrete is recorded. Then, the
velocity is calculated as:
L
V= (2)
T
where: V = pulse velocity in m / sec,
L = length in meters, and,
T = effective time in seconds, which is the measured time minus the zero time
correction.
The zero time correction is equal to the travel time between the
transmitting and receiving transducers when they are pressed firmly
together.
Table (5) is suggested by Whitehurst 1951 and shows the use of the velocity obtained
to classify the quality of concrete.
Since strength is the major property in structural concrete, the measured velocity was
related to strength and plots of velocity vs. strength were obtained. However, the test
result is sensitive to surface properties, presence of steel reinforcement, presence of
voids and cracks, properties of aggregates and mix proportions. (ACI 228.1R 2000,
ASTM 597-83, Malhotra 1976, Yun et al 1988, Qasrawi 2000). According to Sturrup
et al 1984, factors other than concrete strength can affect pulse velocity, and changes
in pulse velocity may overshadow changes due to strength. Hence, there is no unique
relationship between pulse velocity and strength; variations were found between
results when using wet and dry pastes, mortars and concrete.
The test is fast and easy to perform, therefore it can be considered as a successful site
test for quick comparative studies. Yuen et al 1988, showed that the pulse velocity
test results showed the lowest degree of correlation among five different tests used to
estimate the strength of concrete. Kheder 1998 and El Shikh 1998 found little
correlation between ultrasonic pulse velocity and strength under general conditions.
Comparing with rebound number test, Kheder showed that the ultrasonic pulse
velocity test was less reliable in predicting concrete strength if concrete constituents
are not known.
RESEARCH IDEA
The determination of the level of failure may be difficult and unreliable without the
use of complicated methods and procedures such as the load test. Sometimes special
procedures and methods have to be designed, tried and then applied to the element
under consideration. Such methods are usually slow and costly. However, no final
conclusion can be drawn without the application of such methods, especially when the
engineer has to decide on various remedial measures including the demolition of the
structure.
The method presented here, is just a technique that can be applied to the structurally
cracked element in order to obtain a simple conclusion about the tested region.
The basic idea is to measure the velocity through concrete in cracked and uncracked
regions. It is obvious that the velocity of concrete is reduced when there is an internal
crack as shown in Figure 4 because velocity through concrete is higher than velocity
through air or water (the crack is either filled with air or water). Hence, a reduction in
the measured velocity can be noticed when concrete cracks. However, when the
cracks are wide, the sound waves are wholly reflected and no signal is received
(Baker 1992).
Receiver
Transmitter
a. NonCracked Section
Receiver
Transmitter
b. Cracked Section
1 1
−
V V0
w= xS (3)
1 1
−
Vw V0
where:
w is the crack width,
V is the velocity in concrete at any stress level,
V0 is the velocity in concrete at zero stress level,
Vw is the wave velocity in water, taken 1450 m / sec., and,
S is the side length of the cube.
Moreover, the depth and inclination of a crack appearing on the surface can be
determined by measuring the speed the waves travel around the crack. The basic idea
is to measure the velocity through concrete in cracked and uncracked regions. It is
obvious that the waves-travel time through concrete is increased when there is an
internal crack as shown in Figure 5 because the path is longer. The velocity through
uncracked concrete can be approximately obtained by measuring the time travels at
the surface of concrete. However, the velocity on the surface does not really represent
the actual velocity through concrete.
In order to obtain the inclination and depth of a crack appearing on the surface, two
methods can be applied: the simplified or the extended method.
The simplified method is based on measuring the time the waves travel on the surface
of concrete in a free-cracked region. Several measurements can be obtained and then
the average velocity through concrete can be estimated. Later, measurements around
the cracks can be taken. From Figure 5, the following relationships can be obtained:
T R
xi xi+1
T R
hθ lc
li
li+1
where:
lc is the crack length,
li and li+1 are the distances around the crack at any trial i.
V is the velocity in concrete,
x is the distance between the transmitter and the receiver far away from crack,
Tn travel time durinf trail n., and,
θ is the inclination of the crack.
h = lc sin θ (8)
The other method is the extended method, which is based on taking various
measurements about the crack without taking the measurement on the surface. In this
case, at least three measurements are needed around the crack. The two equations can
be obtained by introducing the fact that the velocity through the same concrete is
constant and hence the equations can be solved and the depth and inclination of the
crack can be obtained.
In the cases where the crack extends to the total depth of the slab, no measurement is
recorded and therefore the crack depth will be the depth of the slab and the inclination
cannot be measured.
RESULTS
Qasrawi et al 2003 have used the results of the ultrasonic pulse velocity to predict the
crack width of concrete tested under compression. The use of the ultrasonic pulse
velocity tester is introduced as a tool to monitor basic initial cracking of concrete
structures and hence to introduce a threshold limit for possible failure of the
structures. Experiments using ultrasonic pulse velocity tester have been carried out,
under laboratory conditions, on various concrete specimens loaded in compression up
to failure. Special plots, similar to the one shown in Figure 5 showing the relation
between the velocity through concrete and the stress during loading, have been
introduced. By the use of such plots, severe cracking and possible concrete failure can
be predicted. Also, stress-strain measurements have been carried out in order to obtain
the corresponding strains. Results showed that severe cracking occurred at a stress
level of about 85% of the rupture load. The average velocity at this critical limit was
about 94% of the initial velocity and the corresponding strain was in the range of
0.0015 to 0.0021. The sum of the crack widths (or the width of a single crack) has
been estimated using Equation 3. The value that corresponds to the 94% relative
velocity was between 5.2 – 6.8 mm.
The same procedure and conclusions can be applied to plain concrete pavement
sections, provided that the transmitter and the receiver can be positioned oppositely.
1.2
1.1
1
0.9
Normalized Velosity
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Normalized Stress
2. The determination of the depth and inclination of a crack in a rigid pavement can
be applied to pavements with wearing surface if the wearing surface is carefully
removed from the cracked area and the surface to be tested is thoroughly cleaned
and smoothed.
3. The width of a crack in a pavement can only be estimated by the USPV tester only
if the transmitter and the receiver can be positioned opposite to each other.
Based on this study and taking into consideration the limitations shown in the
previous paragraph, the following can be concluded:
REFERENCES
ACI 318-95 (1995), Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318-
95) and Commentary - ACI 318R-95, ACI, U. S., 369 pp.
ASTM C 597 - 83 (Reapproved 1991), Test for Pulse Velocity through Concrete,
ASTM, U.S.A.
Mildenhall H. and Northcott G. (1986), A manual for the Maintenance and Repair
Concrete Roads, Department of Transport, C & CA, London.
Qasrawi H. and Marie I. (2003), The Use of USPV to Anticipate Failur of Concrete
Under Compression, Cement and Concrete Research, Vol. , pp
Sharma M. and B. Gupta B. (1960), Sonic Modulus as Related to Strength and Static
Modulus of High Strength Concrete, Indian Concrete Journal, 34, No. 4, pp 139-141.
Spooner D. and Dougill J.(1975), A quantitative assessment of damage of damage
sustained in concrete during compressive loading, Magazine of Concrete Research, V.
27, No. 92, pp 151-160.
Yun C., Choi K., Kim S. and Song Y. (1988), Comparative Evaluation of
Nondestructive Test Methods for In-Place Strength Determination, Nondestructive
Testing, Ed. H. S. Lew, ACI SP-112, ACI, Detroit, pp 111 – 136.