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Temperature tracer method for crack detection in underwater concrete structures
Author(s) -
Zhu Yuxuan,
Chen Jiang,
Zhang Yuanyuan,
Xiong Feng,
He Fengfei,
Fang Xiao
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
structural control and health monitoring
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.587
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1545-2263
pISSN - 1545-2255
DOI - 10.1002/stc.2595
Subject(s) - casing , tube (container) , underwater , materials science , structural engineering , engineering , composite material , geology , mechanical engineering , oceanography
Summary Crack detection is an important issue in the health monitoring and performance evaluation of concrete structures. Based on the heat transfer theory, a temperature tracer method and a monitoring system for crack detection in underwater concrete structures are presented in this paper. The system is composed of an integrated sensing and heating system, a monitoring tube, and multiple casing tubes. The inner diameter of the casing tube should be larger than the outer diameter of the monitoring tube so that there is a certain gap between the casing tube and the monitoring tube to form a cavity. Water fills the cavity along the crack face when the underwater concrete structure cracks, resulting in a change in the surrounding medium at the cracked site. Thus, the cooling rate of the heat source in the monitoring tube corresponding to the cracked site will be accelerated. Crack identification can be done based on a comparative analysis of the cooling curves of the heat source in the uncracked and cracked states. The effects of cavity geometry size and intensity of heat source on crack identification are studied using numerical simulations and crack detection tests. Both simulations and test results confirm the feasibility of the proposed crack detection method.