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Outline
Introduction
Stress wave propagation and Methods for Structure
Ultrasonic Methods
Pulse Velocity Method
Direct Configuration
Product information
The Ultran Group is the only producer of
Non-contact transducers for through
thickness measurements
The only technical information available of
these transducers is in their own webpage
The cost of the equipment is U$S 20,000,
which include a field computer, transducers
set and a pulser unit.
Air-Concrete reflection/transmission
Normal incidence
R= Ar = Z2-Z1
Z1+Z2
Ai
T=1+R = 2*Z2
Z1+Z2
R: ratio of sound pressure of the reflected wave to
the sound pressure of the incident wave
T: ratio of sound pressure of the transmitted wave to
sound pressure of the incident wave
Ai: Amplitude of the incident wave
Ar: Amplitude of the reflected wave
Ar: Amplitude of the transmitted wave
Z1: specific Acoustic Impedance of material 1
Z2: specific Acoustic Impedance of material 2
Material 1 Material 2
Ai
At
Ar
Air-Concrete interface
the 2s)
Zair= 0.4 kg/(m
Zconcrete = 9*106 kg/(m2s)
R=0.9999999
T=0.0000001
Z VL * r
Matching Layer
Air
Waves in
phase
Select and attach the optimal impedance matching layer between the
vibrating piezoelectric crystal in the UPV transducer (PZT-4) and air
Experimental Setup
Matching layer caps
Sender
Receiver
Air Gap
Oscilloscope
Pulser unit
LeCroy LT344
FFT
Amplitude
Amplitude(Volts)
Time(ms)
19.5 kHz
Frequency (Hz)
FFT
Time(ms)
Amplitude
Amplitude(Volts)
19.5 kHz
Frequency (Hz)
Amplitude(FFT)
250
200
150
100
50
0
0
18
27
36
45
Amplitude(FFT)
90
60
30
18
27
36
45
crystal
crystal)
D air gap= 9 mm
Resonance at 9 mm, 18 mm, 27 mm, 36 mm,
D = n * l/2
n = 1, 2, 3
Foam
Foam
Foam
Foam
5.4 cm of concrete
Conclusions
Impedance matching layers provide 300% increase in
received signal amplitude through air
Impedance matching layers and 9 mm air gap between the
modified transducers and the sample enable contact-less
through-thickness P-wave Velocity measurements in
concrete specimens up to 10 cm thick showing similar
behavior as standard full contact UPV
Averaging of the received signal increase the SNR
References
[1] ACI Committee 228 (2003). In-place methods to estimate concrete
strength (ACI 228.1R-03). American Concrete Institute, Farmington
Hills, Mich.
[2] Berriman, J., Purnell, P., Hutchins, D.A. and Neild, A.
(2005).Humidity and Aggregate Content Correction Factors for Aircoupled Ultrasonic Evaluation of Concrete Ultrasonics 43 (4) (211217).
[3] Gomez Alvarez-Arenas, Tomas E. (2004). Acoustic Impedance
Matching of Piezoelectric Transducers to the Air, IEEE
Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, And Frequency Control
51 (5) (624-633) .
[4] Krautkramer, J. and Krautkramer, H. (1990). Ultrasonic Testing of
Materials, fourth ed., New York, Springer-Verlag.
[5] Lide, David R., ed.(1998-1999). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics, 79th ed., Cleveland, Ohio.