Abstract

Recent research by the authors has shown that the sounding, such as chirp signal, can be generated by electronic speakers, and their magnitude and frequency can be controlled. Unlike mechanical impact hammers, the electronic sounding is consistent and can be designed with controlled frequency characteristics to excite defects in concrete decks. Another significant limitation of mechanical impact hammers is that the bottom of a deck cannot be conventionally sounded, and determination of precise location of the damaged area is a challenge. To address these limitations, a “smart sounding system” has been developed that can be used to inspect the underdeck and pier surfaces effectively. Previous preliminary research has shown that common defects in concrete structures, such as shallow delamination, generally have a resonant response at a relatively low and narrow frequency band of 1 – 3 kHz, whereas solid areas can be excited at much higher frequency ranges. To facilitate gridding and correlating sounding data to the location, the “smart sounding system” has been integrated with an advanced tracking camera, which can avoid time-consuming and labor-intensive gridding process in the current practice of impact sounding. The objective of this research is to automate the whole process of damage inspection by developing software integrated with the sounding system. The entire process of data collection, signal analysis and visualization are integrated into software. Leveraging advanced signal processing techniques, the software can provide defect mapping instantaneously during field testing.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Research Center/Lab(s)

INSPIRE - University Transportation Center

Sponsor(s)

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology U.S. Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20590

Comments

Principal Investigator: Anil K. Agrawal

Grant #: USDOT # 69A3551747126

Grant Period: 11/30/2016 - 09/30/2024

Project Period: 01/01/2020 - 09/30/2024

The investigation was conducted in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Transportation.

Keywords and Phrases

Impact Sounding, Damage Detection, Acoustic Sounding, Signal Processing, Hilbert Huang Transform, Hilbert Marginal Spectrum, Power Spectral Density, Empirical Mode Decomposition

Report Number

INSPIRE-019

Document Type

Technical Report

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

June 30, 2024

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