CEMENT and CONCRETE RESEARCH. Vol. 21, pp. 73-82, 1991. Printed in the USA.

0008-8846/91. $3.00+00. Copyright (e) 1991 Pergamon Press pie.

D A M A G E M E A S U R E M E N T S IN C O N C R E T E V I A A N ULTRASONIC TECHNIQUE. PART I EXPERIMENT

Yves BERTHAUD Laboratoire de M6canique et Technologie E.N.S. Cachan / C.N.R.S. / Universit6 Paris 6 et GRECO Rh6ologie des G6omat6riaux. 61, avenue Pr6sident Wilson - 94235 CACHAN - FRANCE (Communicated by Z.P. Bazant) (Received March 30; in final form Sept. 28, 1990)

ABSTRACT In this paper, the possible correlations between the mechanical and acoustical consequences of damage in concrete are investigated. The particular case of the compression test is chosen for many reasons among which, the strong elastic anisotropy induced by the degradation. Both the velocity and the amplitude of longitudinal or shear waves are measured on cubic specimens. In a first step, within the elastic domain, an acoustical anisotropy due to the porous nature of undamaged concrete is highlighted. Then, another form of anisotropy induced by damage (i.e. microcracks) appears. These two phenomena may exist simultaneously in real concrete. INTRODUCTION The non destructive methods have always been appreciated in material engineering. Ultrasonic methods are a useful way to determine the state of a material i.e. its elastic moduli and also its internal structure. These two characteristics have been widely investigated for various materials such as metals or heterogeneous media (concrete, fiber composites). Two fundamental quantities are of interest when coherent waves propagate : the phase velocity and the amplitude of the signal. In most cases, only the first one is used because of the relative simplicity of interpretation. Roux and co-authors (1) have developed an automatic system to measure the elasticity constants of an anisotropic medium for 5 coefficients transverse isotropy. First, they measure the velocity of longitudinal or shear waves in various directions of the specimen immersed in a water tank temperature controlled and then, minimize a function which takes into account the measurements and the theoretical relations given by the Christoffel equation. The advantage of that procedure is that it avoids machining different specimens. In the particular case of a time evolution of the elastic constants (aging of concrete), it is possible to capture their variations. Durand (2) has recorded the evolution of the velocity of longitudinal waves propagating in concrete while the chemical reaction occurs. He has clearly measured the increase of the speed and the plateau reached after 7 days. With some other measurements ( e.g. of the shear waves ) and the hypothesis of an elastic behavior
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of the mixture it would have been possible to deduce the evolution of the elastic constants ( i.e. the Young's modulus E and the Po:.sson ratio v ) . In the case of a linear viscoelastic behavior, the ultrasonic wave analysis is one of the methods used to obtain the complex modulus (3,4). Other tests are required such as relaxation, vibration of bars or plates to scan the whole frequency domain. When the wavelength becomes comparable to the size of the heterogeneity (grain for metals) another phenomenon commonly called dispersion of waves appears : the geometry has an influence on the velocity. As the velocity of the waves becomes a function of the frequency, it is possible to deduce for instance the pore size in ceramics which have a regular structure (5). To summarize, the velocity of elastic waves enables to learn about several aspects of materials : -their elastic constants, if the wavelength is large when compared to the size of the heterogeneity. -their internal structure if the wavelength is short when compared to the size of the heterogeneity. This second type of information is more clearly manifested in the amplitude of the wave. Indeed, for polycristalline materials, the major effect which leads to the attenuation of the signal is the diffraction of the wave by each grain. Theoretical works (6) have shown that the variation of the attenuation tx as a function of the frequency f has the form t~ ~ A(d) f4 in the Rayleigh domain, where A(d) is a function of the average grain size d. An application has been made with a Cu Zn alloy exposed to various annealed treatments (7). The grain size varies with both the temperature and the duration of the annealed treatments. With different probes (1MHz to 50 MHz) the function o~ ( f ) is measured in the entire frequency domain and the average value of the grain size is deduced. The comparison with the microscopic observations is good when the sample is homogeneous. The same phenomenon is responsible for the attenuation of ultrasonic waves in concrete. Many authors have theoretically studied that problem (8-10). Their results indicate that the existence of microcracks inside the material leads to an evolution of the attenuation which has the same expression as given above. In that case, coefficient A depends on the shape of the microcracks ( and the exponent can also be slightly different). Because the cracks in concrete are mainly generated around the aggregates, another particular phenomenon emerges (9). At ftrst, if the aggregate has a higher acoustical impedance than the matrix ( the impedance Z is equal to the product of the mass density p and of the velocity V : Z = pV), which is always the case in concrete, the existing microcracks reduce that difference and, as a consequence, the attenuation .also decreases (the amplitude of the wave increases). But, when the crack becomes larger, the heterogeneity turns into a cavity with a lower impedance than matrix so that the attenuation quickly increases ( the amplitude of the wave drops ). In parallel, the speed of the waves of course always decreases but slowly. These remarks lead to the conclusion that microcracks or micropores either initially existing in the virgin material (ceramic or concrete in the initial state) or created by mechanical loadings (especially in the case of concrete ) have acoustical consequences. Furthermore, these materials defects are also responsible for the strong variations of the elastic constants. It is then natural to question about the ability of the ultrasonic technique to be a damage indicator. The aim of this paper is to establish that correlation for a concrete with small aggregates subjected to compression. First, the damage mechanisms and their mechanical consequences are described. Then, after a section devoted to the acoustical set-up, are pointed out two different kinds of correlations : a coupling between the state of stress within the specimen and the wave propagation, which is due to the pre-existing microcracks in concrete. a coupling between the state of damage and the wave propagation which is due to the evolution of the cracks.
-

MECHANICAL SET-UP AND MEASUREMENTS In this chapter, the concrete composition, the shape of the specilnen and its mechanical properties are described. Set-uo - For this study, a special concrete has been chosen for the following mechanical and acoustical reasons :

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1 - To ensure the test to be meaningful for heterogeneous materials, the size of the specimen must be much larger than the maximum aggregate size. A ratio of 10 is a valid lower bound (11). 2 - Moreover, the maximum value of the resisting area of the specimen has been limited by the capacity of the testing machine (MTS + 2500 kN) and chosen as 100 cm 2. 3 - In the introduction the notion of coherent waves has been mentioned. When a coherent wave is generated in heterogeneous medium, there exits a length beyond which the wave is no longer coherent (12). In this case, the wave characterizes the material no longer but rather the heterogeneity distribution along the propagation path. 4 - In addition, the fact that the changes of the velocities are small fixes another upper limit to the propagation length in order to obtain accurate measurements. Indeed, the attenuation in such materials is typically about 1Np/m. That means that for standard probes with a 200 V excitation and for a propagation length equal to 100 mm, the electrical signal received before any amplification typically should not exceed 1 mV. 5 - Last, the material must be seen by the wave as homogeneous and that requires an ultrasonic transducer larger than the maximum aggregate size. Thus, the following set up has been chosen :

- Specimen : cube 70 x70 x 70 mm 3 - Aggregates : 0 to 4 ram-

Transducers : Strain gauge :

O 13 mm Panametrics L = 20 mm VISHAY PL20

Mechanical measurements The initial Young's modulus and Poisson ratio of the material are supposed to be isotropic (this has been verified by using velocities). Their values have been obtained by a linear regression on the stress strain curves (Fig. 1) after a special numerical filtering to eliminate the noise. E0 = 29600 Mpa v0 = 0.19
-0002

-t5a

-*

' "l- .....................

-0001

calculallon

of E3

Fig.1 :Curve stress (~3 versus strain e 3 .

O~ 3

"-

Then, the specimen has been monotonically loaded and the value of E measured has been measured after each unloading. The evolution of the elastic modulus E3 is plotted on figure 2. On the same figure, the values obtained for E1 (13) under similar conditions but for another concrete mix are also given. After each unloading, the specimen has been rotated and a compressive stress which remains inside the elastic domain is applied to measure the two Poisson ratios v32 and v12 (13) which are given in figure 3. These four curves clearly indicate that whereas the material is initially isotropic, the damaged one can no longer be considered so. In particular, the elastic modulus E3 decreases much more than E1 In particular test the cracks are roughly parallel to the load direction (Fig. 4) (14). The compressive load in the space direction 3 opens the cracks because of the multiaxial effects around the aggregates, and then softens the material. On the contrary, when the stress is applied in the direction 1 some of the cracks close and that explains why E1 does not change significantly. The

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1,2

E /E 0
........ -o .......... ......................

qN
0,8

Fig.2 : Curves of E3/E0and

0,6 0,2 E 0 0 I 0,0005 I 0,001 I 0,0015 2 0,002 E3/E 0
EL/E 0

E1/E 0 versus e 2 .

0,4

increase of v is also a consequence of the degradation mechanism. These phenomena can be modelled within the framework of thermodynamics, using continuous damage variables which represent the damage state. The damage variable is a scalar if the degradation is supposed isotropic, or a tensor in the other cases (15,16). It is also possible to describe the development of inelastic strains due to damage (17). ACOUSTICAL SET-UP In this section, all the precautions have been taken in order to ensure that the ultrasonic measurements are meaningful. Precaution The cubic specimens have been machined in order to obtain a good paraUelism of two opposite sides. The acoustical isotropy has been verified with nearly twenty measurements of the acoustic velocity in various directions and different points. This velocity has been deduced from correlation between the current signal and that corresponding to a 35 mm propagation length. The mean values of the longitudinal ( or shear ) velocities denoted VL ( or VT ) are given below : it can be noticed that the scatter is very low :
VL =

3240 ms -1 + 20 ms -1
f I / / /
. .- A "

VT = 1990 ms -1 + 20 ms 1
iu

v / vo 2,5

/ / / 1,5 |.~i ..-f .- j

~.~N.- A .....

V32 VI2

Fig.3 :Curves of v32/v0and Vl2/V 0 versus e 2 .

0,5 E 0
I 0,0005 I 0,001 t 0,0015

2 0,002

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Experimental _procedure Since the specimen is cubic, it is possible to analyze the wave propagation in the anisotropic medium in different directions. To do that, two transducers have been glued on two opposite faces of the specimen (Fig. 5). The mechanical and acoustical data acquisition is computer controlled. The electrical impulsions are sequentially sent to the emitters and the received signals are scanned before being sampled by a digitizer. To improve the signal to noise ratio each signal has been accumulated five times. The wideband of the transducers is a necessary condition for obtaining enough energy even at low frequencies (0 to 1 MHz). Their central frequency, as given by the manufacturer, is 2,.25 MHz.
LOAD LOAD

Emitte:

,j.

j--

;eivers

'I
ff LOAD

LOAD

Fig. 4 : Crack pattern observed by X Rays

Fig. 5 : Specimen and transducers

Velocity_ measurements Since change of the velocities theoretically predicted is low, it is necessary to develop a special treatment. Besides, it must be noticed that only the changes of the speed are required. The adopted method has been previously described in (1). The time shifting between two signals (a reference one S 1 and the current one $2) is obtained through the computation of a intercorrelation function C F of these signals (Fig. 6a and 6b). Then, the exact numerical time derivative of C F is deduced from a Fourier Transform : d dt ($1 $2) = T F -1 [ i.TF ($1) TF ($2) ] where i = The time derivative of C F is also a sampled function. The "exact zero" of that function is deduced from a linear interpolation between the points G and H respectively corresponding to positive and negative time derivative values ( Fig. 7 ). That "exact zero" is supposed to correspond to the "exact maximum" of the continuous C F function. This is a means to improve the accuracy of the time shifting without increasing the sampling frequency. In particular, numerical tests have shown that, with this method, the accuracy is multiplied by a factor of 10. Attenuation The amplitude spectrum of each current signal has been divided by the amplitude spectrum of the reference signal as stored at the beginning of the test after a time and frequency filtering. ACOUSTICAL MEASUREMENTS In this section, two different phenomena are illustrated: first, the coupling existing between the state of stress and the propagation of waves ; then we show another influence of the state of damage on the propagation.

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Amplitude "( Arbitrary Units)

!
_.

s2

Fig.6a:Signals S 1 and S2 versus time.

Amplitude ( Arbitrary Units)

G----'~ H --

1
-...L
_

t (p.s)
.--%

Fig.6b: Intereorrelation CF of signals S 1 and S2 versus time.

CouDlinu between stress state and wave

nrot)aeation The ultrasonic signals have been rec(~rded for three different values of the applied stress

viz. 2MPa, 7MPa and 12MPa. The behavior of concrete remains elastic within this domain. Figures 8 and 9 show the time evolution of the signal for these three stress states, for the longitudinal waves propagating in the 1 or 3 space directions (respectively denoted L1 and I-.3). The major points to be underlined are the following : i) The phenomenon is reversible. If the specimen is unloaded, the wave recovers its initial properties (both in amplitude and speed). ii) The increase of the velocity and of the amplitude is larger for the L1 wave than for the L 3 wave. These effects have already been observed by many authors (8, 18). They can be explained by the fact that a great number of little cracks or discontinuities initially exists in virgin concrete. Some of these cracks close under the applied load, specially if they are in the 1-2 plane. The L 3 waves are

f I

Amplitude ( Arbitrary Units)

-

.~ -"
G "'-

"'.

,
.-" ' " "

, t(~s)
""

/7-._ "-'~"-~' " ~ : .~'--. ' "--':.

"

--~. ~-.2,f ~

" ---

",~
. ."

--

Fig.7 : Time derivative of CF.

-.; H" .

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I Ala.)

17--o =12

Fig.8 : Signal L 1 versus time for different stress states.

/~

...-a

= 2

MPa

A(au}
-~ 0 = 1 2

MPa MPa MPa

0" :

7 2

Fig.9 : Signal L 3 versus time for different stress states.

[1

~0

much more sensitive to this crack closure than the L1 wave which propagate in the crack plane. It can also be noticed that this phenomenon is non linear (Fig. 8). Since it is difficult to distinguish the signals for the higher stress states 7MPa and 12MPa, it can be inferred that, probably, a great number of very little discontinuities close for a low value of the stress so that beyond some critical state, it becomes more and more difficult to create new contacts. Couolin~ between damage and wave propagation - As above-descril~ed, concrete has been damaged during a compression test. During the experiment the ultrasonic signals have been recorded. In a first step, the signals have been analyzed for different damage states, but always after unloading i.e in a stress free state. By eliminating the effect of the applied stress, the effect of damage can be isolated. Figures 10 and 11 give the evolution of the same longitudinal waves L1 and L 3 versus time. If these figures are compared to the figures 8 - 9 great differences can observed. i) the L3 wave which was perturb by the elastic stress is not modified by the evolution of damage. ii) on the contrary, the L1 wave has a velocity which decreases when damage increases and so does the amplitude (see Fig. 12 for the amplitude spectrum). iii) the most important remark concerns the irreversibility of the process, the created cracks remain opened when the load is removed. The cracks correspond to a degradation of the medium and the same closure effect could be observed with an axisymetric pressure ( lateral pressure in the 1-2 plan ).

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ACa.)

~
Jl

~3--o.o5
/ d,=o.41

II

da =0.2

Fig.10: Signal L 1 versus time for different damage states.

A (au}

d3= 0.05 d 3 = 0.2

, 1 , t(#S)
,~'h.fA = _

J~ ,~f~,t~ /~

Fig, 11: Signal L 3 versus time for different damage states.

Effect of both the stress state and damage All the ultrasonic signals have been recorded for different stress values and for different damage state. Let us compare the evolution of both the velocity of the wave L 3 and its amplitude spectrum. This wave has been chosen because the corresponding results are the most significant. The variation of the speed versus E3 / E0 and for two different values of (~3 (a3 = 2MPa and t~3 = 12 MPa) are plotted in Fig. 13. It can be noticed that in both cases the slope of the curves are

s (o=o,~,)

3=0.05
Fig. 12: Amplitude spectrum of L 1 for different damage states.

~ I0
.~

0
.~

4
.6

1
.8
f (MHz)

_~
i-

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ULTRASONIC MEASUREMENTS, DAMAGE

81

negative and nearly parallel. In this case, it is easy to understand the two different effects of stress and damage. When concrete is stressed, some of the cracks close and the velocities increase. On the contrary, when the specimen is damaged, the acoustical properties decrease. Of course, no further crack propagation is supposed to occur under the of 12MPa value. This point has been verified with the ultrasonic wave during loading and unloading for each damage state. The same phenomena occur for the amplitude spectrum. The reference spectrum (stored at the beginning of the test) and several spectra corresponding to different states are plotted in figure 14, and the same comments apply.
0,06 0,05
N

o= 3

2MPa

0,04 0,03

c~=12MPa 3

Fig.13: Speed VL3 versus damage for two different stress states.

0,02 0,01

I E3/E
-

0 ,/
|0""-..

t
0,3

I
0,4 0,5

-0,0l f + -0,02/.

0,1 0,2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .....

....................

o" =12

~ d~ =0.41--

"" ".

a= 7

d#0

Fig.14:Amplitute spectrum of L 3 for different damage and stress states.

i i ~ i iL

.2

.4

.5

f(MHz)

CONCLUSIQN In this first part, both the mechanical and acoustical consequences of damage are investigated. A strong elastic anisotropy is induced by the degradation during a compression test. The cubic specimen allows to measure the velocity of waves in various directions (1 and 3). As the whole received signal is recorded it is also possible to analyze the evolution of the amplitude. For that purpose, special numerical procedures have been chosen because of the low variations expected. Two different factors may perturb the elastic waves : 1 - The state of stress is one of these factors. Since concrete, even in an undamaged state, is microcracked, some of the cracks may close under an appropriate load so that an acoustical anisotropy is induced by the stress.

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2 - The state of damage is the second factor. The propagating microcracks are responsible for the observed mechanical damage. The fact that the waves are sensitive to the presence of cracks obviously induces another coupling between damage and wave propagation. It is important to notice that the mechanical and acoustical anisotropy are different because of the particular nature of the degradation of concrete under compression. Finally, a superposition of these two effects exists when a stress is applied to a damaged specimen. For this reason one has to be very cautious when interpreting such experiments. REFERENCES 1. J. ROUX, B. HOSTEN, B. CASTAGNEDE and M. DESCHAMPS, Caract6risation m6canique des solides par spectro-interf6rom6trie ultrasonore, Revue Phys. App., 20, 351-358, (1985). 2. A. DURAND, Etude ~t l'aide de grandes c6ramiques de la propagation des ultrasons dans les 6prouvettes en b6tons, Mat6daux et Construction, 9 (52), p. 297-302, (1950). 3. Y. BERTHAUD, D6termination des caract6ristiques visco61astiques des P.M.M.A. ~ l'aide d'ondes ultrasonores, Rapport Interne 61, L.M.T. Cachan, (1985). 4. W. SACHSE and C.S. TING, Measurement of ultrasonic dispersion by phase comparison of continuous harmonic waves, J. Acoust. Soc. Am, 64, 852-857, (1978). 5. C. SVE, Elastic wave propagation in a porous laminated composite, Int. J. Solids Structures, 9, 937-950, (1973). 6. RONEY, Ph.D. Thesis, California Institute of Technology, (1950). 7. B. ANFRAY, Etude de ratt6nuation des ondes ultrasonores de volume et de surface appliqu6e la caract6risation des mat6fiaux, Th6se 36me cycle Universit6 Pads 7, (1984). 8. J.J. MARIGO, Propagation des ondes ultrasonores et microfissuration du b6ton, Th~se 3~me cycle Universit6 Pads 6, (1980). 9. O. COUSSY, Scattering of elastic waves by an inclusion with an interface crack, Wave motion, 6, 223-236, (1984). 10. M. PIAU, Crack-induced anisotropy and scattering in stressed rocks : effective moduli and attenuation, Int. J. Eng. Sci., 18, 549-568, (1980). 11. Z.P. BAZANT, Mechanics of distributed cracking, App. Mech. Rev., 39, 675-705, (1986). 12. A. GAZALET, J. FROHLY, J. PERDIGAO and C. BRUNEEL, Incoherent wave attenuation in inhomogeneous media, J. Am. Acoust. Soc., 76, 1259, (1984). 13. F.COLLOMBET, Mod6lisation de rendommagement anisotrope. Application au comportement du b6ton sous sollicitations multiaxiales, Th~se de 3~me cycle, Universit6 Pads 6, (1985). 14. S.R. ROBINSON, Methods of detecting the formation and propagation of microcracks in concrete, Proc. of the Int. Conf. on the Structure of Concrete, London,(1965). 15. J. MAZARS, Application de la mdcanique de rendommagement au comportement non lin6aire et ~t la rupture du b~ton de structure, Th~se de Doctorat d'6tat, Universit6 Pads 6, (1984). 16. J. MAZARS and G. PIJAUDIER-CABOT, Continuum damage theory. Application to concrete, ASCE Journal of Eng. Mechanics, 5, (2), 345-365, (1989). 17. S. RAMTANI, Y. BERTHAUD and J. MAZARS, A model for describing both the anisotropic and uniaxial distributed damage in concrete, Proceedings of 10th SMIRT, Los Angeles, Ed. by H. Hadjian, (1989). 18. SAYERS, Stress induced ultrasonic wave velocity anisotropy in fractured rock, Ultrasonics, 26 (6), (1988).