Longitudinal Guided Waves for Monitoring Chloride Corrosion in Reinforcing Bars in Concrete

Corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete is one of the major durability problems faced by civil engineers as they maintain an aging infrastructure. The problem accelerates since steel is embedded inside concrete. If it remains unnoticed inside concrete, it further accelerates and can cause loss of life and property. This article discusses a nonintrusive corrosion monitoring technique for early detection of damages in steel embedded in concrete. Corrosion manifests itself in debond and pitting steel bars. Guided ultrasonic waves offer a potentially attractive solution for this problem. But it is imperative to excite the right mode for detection of a particular type of corrosion. In the present work, longitudinal guided ultrasonic waves have been utilized to monitor notch and debond defects in steel bars in concrete simulating pitting and delamination phenomena caused by corrosion. Two ultrasonic techniques of pulse transmission and pulse echo were used to monitor the healthy and damaged specimens. The developed methodology is successfully applied for real time monitoring of RC beam specimens undergoing accelerated chloride corrosion. The ultrasonic signals effectively relate to the state of reinforcing bars.