Abstract
Detection and characterization of cracks in cement-based materials is an integral part of damage evaluation for health monitoring of civil structures. Microwave signals are able to penetrate inside of dielectric materials (e.g., cement-based materials) and are sensitive to local, physical, geometrical, and dielectric variations in a structure. This makes microwave nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E) techniques suitable for inspection and health monitoring of civil structures. Near-field microwave NDT&E techniques offer the added advantage of providing high spatial resolution, requiring simple hardware that may be portable, low power, fast, real time, and robust. Additionally, these techniques are noncontact and one-sided. Besides the need for robust detection, electromagnetic modeling of a microwave probe response to a crack is also an important issue. Such a model can be used to obtain optimal measurement parameters and serve as the foundation for extracting important crack information such as its width and depth. In this paper, the utility of open-ended rectangular waveguide probes for detecting surface-breaking cracks in cement-based materials is discussed. Subsequently, the development of a semiempirical model capable of simulating the crack response is presented. The model described here translates the magnitude and phase of the reflection coefficient as a function of scanning distance into the complex reflection plane and takes advantage of the common shape of these signals for predicting a similar signal from an unknown crack. Finally, this empirical model is used to estimate crack dimensions from a set of measurements.
Recommended Citation
J. Nadakuduti et al., "Semiempirical Electromagnetic Modeling of Crack Detection and Sizing in Cement-Based Materials using Near-Field Microwave Methods," IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 588 - 597, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Apr 2006.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1109/TIM.2006.870132
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Second Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sponsor(s)
Missouri. Department of Transportation
Keywords and Phrases
Cement-Based Materials; Concrete; Crack; Crack Detection; Crack Dimension Estimation; Microwave Detectors; Microwave Measurement; Microwave Nondestructive Testing; Microwaves; Near-Field Microwave Methods; Nondestructive Testing; Probes; Rectangular Waveguide Probes; Rectangular Waveguides; Reflection Coefficient; Semiempirical Electromagnetic Model; Structural Engineering; Structural Health Monitoring; Surface-Breaking Cracks; Infrastructure Testing and Cement-Based Material Evaluation; Surface Crack Detection and Evaluation
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0018-9456
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2006 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Apr 2006
Comments
Funding: MoDOT: Grant RI02-01