Description:
Reference #: 01504
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for Short-term AE monitoring to identifying ASR progression in Concrete Structures.
Background:
Alkali-silica reaction (ASR) is one of the aging agents in concrete structures, which endangers structure serviceability and integrity. The reaction causes expansion, and this expansion leads to cracking in structures.
A method was developed to monitor the structures and determine the percentage of concrete degradation (cracking). When concrete cracks, vibration waves are emitted from cracking. We record these waves and estimate the status of cracking of structures.
Invention Description:
A method based on acoustic emission (AE) technology has been created to monitor a concrete structure for a short interval (14 to 20 days) and based on signals acquired, the ASR progression status in the structure will be estimated. Using the proposed method allows the owners to monitor the health of structures remotely and efficiently without halting any serviceability and operational activities of the structures. Furthermore, the method will provide the owners with information about the ASR progression status of structures, which is helpful to decide rehabilitation and future structural safety and serviceability. In this method, AE sensors are installed on structures (locations with the higher risk of degradation) for a time interval of 14-20 days. The signals are collected during the time interval and based on the developed model; the ASR progression percentage will be determined.
Potential Applications:
The innovation helps the owners of structures to get information about the structural health and degradation levels without stopping serviceability and structural operation. It helps them to make an on-time decision about potential rehabilitation of structures, structure safety, and future serviceability.
Advantages and Benefits: The early recognition of ASR and understanding the stage of ASR progression is very vital for on-time decision making about important structures such as nuclear facilities, bridges, and dams. Understanding and detection of ASR damage are very challenging using traditional methods based on physical inspection due to hidden symptoms of ASR on the surface of structures. With these innovations, it is possible to monitor and do a condition assessment of structures remotely without stopping business or services associated with the structures, as well as minimizing human error in the condition assessment by removing subjective procedures, thus increasing the efficiency of the condition assessment especially in earlier stages.