A Solitary Wave-Based Sensor to Monitor the Setting of Fresh Concrete

A Solitary Wave-Based Sensor to Monitor the Setting of Fresh Concrete

Blog Article

We present a proof-of-principle study about the use of a sensor for the nondestructive monitoring of strength development in hydrating concrete.The nondestructive evaluation technique is based on the propagation of highly nonlinear solitary waves (HNSWs), which are non-dispersive mechanical waves that can Burrs form and travel in highly nonlinear systems, such as one-dimensional particle chains.A built-in transducer is adopted to excite and detect the HNSWs.The waves are partially reflected at the transducer/concrete interface and partially transmitted into the concrete.

The time-of-flight and the amplitude of the waves reflected at the interface are measured and analyzed with respect Gastrointestinal - Laxatives to the hydration time, and correlated to the initial and final set times established by the penetration test (ASTM C 403).The results show that certain features of the HNSWs change as the concrete curing progresses indicating that it has the potential of being an efficient, cost-effective tool for monitoring strengths/stiffness development.