Use of Surface Wave Measurements to Characterize Surface-Breaking Cracks in Concrete Bridge Decks

The depths of surface-breaking cracks in concrete bridge decks are characterized through the use of an extended surface wave transmission (SWT) method. For practical applications to concrete plates, the authors propose a measurement model that includes an appropriate configuration of the source and receivers, as well as a transmission function for the given configuration. A three-dimensional finite element model was used to conduct a series of numerical simulations to obtain the transmission function. Afterward, a proposed model was applied to characterize surface-breaking cracks in simulated and actual reinforced concrete bridge decks. As demonstrated, the proposed method was effective at characterizing the depth of a surface-breaking crack in a concrete bridge deck with an average error of 10% to 15%. In addition, it was found that a fusion of the results from the SWT and the surface wave velocity measurement led to a more accurate estimation of crack depth.