LINEAR ARRAY ULTRASONIC TESTING OF A THICK CONCRETE SPECIMENS FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION

Abstract

The University of Minnesota and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are collaborating on the design and construction of a concrete specimen with sufficient reinforcement density and cross-sectional size to represent a light water reactor (LWR) containment wall with various defects. The preliminary analysis of the collected data using extended synthetic aperture focussin technique (SAFT) reconstruction indicated a great potential of the ultrasound array technology for locating relatively shallow distresses. However, the resolution and reliability of the analysis is inversely proportional to the defect depth and the amount of reinforcement between the measurement point and the defect location. The objective of this round of testing is to evaluate repeatability of the obtained reconstructions from measurements with different frequencies as well as to examine the effect of the duration of the sending ultrasound signal on the resulting reconstructions. Two series of testing are performed in this study. The objective of the first series is to evaluate repeatability of the measurements and resulting reconstructed images. The measurements use three center frequencies. Five measurements are performed at each location with and without lifting the device. The analysis of the collected data suggested that a linear array ultrasound system can produce reliably repeatable reconstructions using 50 kHz signals for relatively shallow depths (less than 0.5 m). However, for reconstructions at the greater depths the use of lower frequency and/or signal filtering to reduce the effect of signal noise may be required. The objective of the second series of testing is to obtain measurements with various impulse signal durations. The entire grid on the smooth surface is tested with four different various impulse signal durations. An analysis of the resulting extended SAFT reconstructions suggested that Kirchhoff-based migration leads to easier interpreting reconstructions when shorter duration impulse is used. Longer duration impulses may provide useful information for model-based reconstructions.