A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Wttwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of th e degree of Master of science in Engineering Johannesburg 1988 / This dissertation addresses the question of the fracture behaviour of notched concrete and mortar beams. The major purpose of the work was to study the development of the micro-cracked zone and identify the point at which main crack growth began, and thus to characterise concrete and mortar at the start of main crack growth. Notched concrete and mortur beams of width 100 mm, depth either 200 mm or 300 nun, and with a span/depth ratio of three, were tested. Measurements of midspan deflection, midspan load, surface displacements across the fracturing section and ultrasonic pulse transit time were made. Ordinary Portland cement and mineral aggregates were used for the concrete and mortar beams. The J'■integral, surface displacements across the fracturing section and ultrasonic pulse transit time measurements were used to detect the onset of main crack growth. It was found that a reduction in the load carrying capacity of concrete and mortar is possible due to micro-cracking only. The value of the J-integral at the start of main crack growth was found to be essentially the same for concrete and mortar. The value of the J-integral at the start of micro-cracking was ■ < found to be essentially the same for concrete and mortar, and about 40% of the value of the J-integral at the start of main crack growth. The value of the J-integral at the start of micro-cracking and at the start of main crack growth was found, on average, to increase for an increase in beam depth. Surface displacements across the fracturing section showed the tension zone at the start of main crack growth to be approximately twice the size of the compression zone for both concrete and mortar. The'size of the micro-cracked zone, as determined from surface displacements across the fracturing section, was found to be 42% of the residual ligament depth for concrete, and 41% of the residual ligament depth for mortar. Scatter in the results was found to be considerable, thus meaning that only general trends could be identified

Bibliography: leaves 213-234.

The prevalence of concrete and cement-based materials in the civil infrastructure plus the risk of failure makes structural health monitoring an important issue in the understanding of the complete life cycle of civil structures. Correspondingly, the field of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) has been maturing and now concentrates on the detection of flaws and defects, as well as material damage in early stages of degradation. This defect detection is typically usually done by looking at the impulse response of the medium in question such as a cement-based material. The impulse response of a solid can be used to image a complex medium. Classically, the waveform is obtained by an active setup: an ultrasonic signal is generated at one location and recorded at another location. The waveform obtained from imaging can be used to quantitatively characterize the medium, for example by calculating the material's diffusivity coefficient or dissipation rate. In recent years, a different monitoring technique has been developed in seismology to measure the velocity of different kinds of waves, the Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI). In this CWI technique, the main focus is given to the late part of the recorded waveform, the coda. CWI is now successfully used in seismology and acoustics. In the current research, CWI is applied on concrete in different damage states to develop basic knowledge of the behavior of the wave velocity, and how it can be used to characterize cement-based materials. By comparing two impulse responses, the relative velocity change between the two impulse responses is used to characterize damage. Because of the stress-dependency of the velocity change, the calculations can also be used to directly calculate the Murnaghan's and Lam´e's coefficients. The newer technique of CWI is applied - the Stretching Technique (ST) [27]. The first goal of this research is to establish the viability of using CWI in cement-based materials. Next, we use the ST in the application of stress as we compress concrete samples for the detection of thermal damage, ASR-damage and mechanical softening.

Bibliography: leaves 213-234 / xviii, 234, 13 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Faculty of Engineering (Civil), 1994?

Yes / Aiming to detect concrete defects, we propose a new identification method based on stochastic configuration networks. The presented model has been trained by time-domain and frequency-domain features which are extracted from filtering and decomposing ultrasonic detection signals. This method was applied to ultrasonic detection data collected from 5 mm, 7 mm, and 9 mm penetrating holes in C30 class concrete. In particular, wavelet packet transform (WPT) was then used to decompose the detected signals, thus the information in different frequency bands can be obtained. Based on the data from the fundamental frequency nodes of the detection signals, we calculated the means, standard deviations, kurtosis coefficients, skewness coefficients and energy ratios to characterize the detection signals. We also analyzed their typical statistical features to assess the complexity of identifying these signals. Finally, we used the stochastic configuration networks (SCNs) algorithm to embed four-fold cross-validation for constructing the recognition model. Based upon the experimental results, the performance of the presented model has been validated and compared with the genetic algorithm based BP neural network model, where the comparison shows that the SCNs algorithm has superior generalization abilities, better fitting abilities, and higher recognition accuracy for recognizing defect signals. In addition, the test and analysis results show that the proposed method is feasible and effective in detecting concrete hole defects. / This work was supported in part by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZJNSF) project under Grant (No. LY18F030012), the National Natural Science Foundation of China projects (NSFC) under Grant (No. 61403356, 61573311).

This research develops two novel experimental techniques based on nonlinear acoustics/ultrasound to provide an ultra-accelerated characterization of alkali-reactivity of aggregates. Alkali-silica reaction (ASR) is a deleterious reaction occurring between reactive siliceous minerals present in some aggregates and alkalis mainly contributed by the cement, but also present in some deicing chemicals. With increasing reports of ASR-induced damage in transportation structures, there is a critical need for fast and reliable test methods for the screening of aggregates and aggregate/paste combinations. Currently, the accelerated mortar bar test (AMBT), which measures expansion, is the most commonly used test method. Also used is the concrete prism test (CPT), another expansion-based method, which requires at least one year testing time, limiting the practical utility of this method. In addition, petrographic analysis can be performed to identify potentially reactive minerals in aggregates but requires training and may not be appropriate for assessment of aggregate/paste combinations. Finally, linear acoustic methods such as wave speed and attenuation measurements can be used for the assessment of ASR, but the sensitivity of linear acoustic methods to ASR-induced damage is considered to be relatively low. Therefore, critical limitations exist in the existing test methods. In light of recent advances in nonlinear acoustics (which are more sensitive to small-scale damage than linear acoustics), the purpose of this research is the development and assessment of an accelerated method for evaluating the potential for alkali reactivity in aggregate and aggregate/paste combinations by combining advanced ultrasonic methods with standard test procedures. In fact, two nonlinear acoustic methods are developed under this research - nonlinear wave modulation spectroscopy (NWMS) and nonlinear impact resonance acoustic spectroscopy (NIRAS) - and are used to characterize the changes in material nonlinearity as a result of the progressive ASR damage during the standard mortar bar and concrete prism testing. Following the AMBT and CPT, nonlinear acoustic techniques are applied to both mortar bars and concrete prism samples. Nonlinearity parameters are defined as the indicator of growing ASR damage, and measurement results clearly show that these nonlinearity parameters are more sensitive to the ASR damage than the linear parameters used in the linear acoustic measurements, particularly at early ages. Different aggregates with varying alkali-reactivity are effectively distinguished with the proposed experimental techniques in a timely manner, particularly for those aggregates with similar levels of reactivity, as determined by AMBT. The effect of a Class C fly ash addition on nonlinear properties was also investigated using the NIRAS measurements through a comparison of test results between mortar samples blended with fly ash and without fly ash. As complementary supports of the experimental results, petrographic analyses and theoretical modeling are also performed, and these results are well correlated with results from the NWMS and NIRAS techniques. Through a comparison with results from accompanying expansion measurements and linear acoustic methods, the proposed nonlinear acoustic techniques show their advantages to accelerate the assessment of alkali-reactivity of aggregates. Under AMBT, reactive aggregates were identifiable as early as a few days of testing. With CPT, reactive aggregates were differentiated as early as a few weeks. Overall, the coupling of the developed nonlinear test methods with standard expansion tests suggests that test durations could be potentially reduced by half, especially for AMBT tests.