Study of acoustoelasticity behavior of concrete material under uniaxial compression

• Published in: Proceedings of meetings on acoustics Vol. 4; no. 1
• Main Authors: Chaix, Jean-Francois, Lillamand, Ivan, Ploix, Marie-Aude, Garnier, Vincent, Corneloup, Gilles
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.07.2008
• ISSN: 1939-800X
• DOI: 10.1121/1.3008567

The general subject concerns the non destructive testing of pre-stressed structure in civil engineering structures. In this topic we interest in the faisability of stress evaluation in concrete by ultrasonic methods. To do that, we use the acoustoelasticity theory which exploits the nonlinear behaviour of medium to establish the link between stress and ultrasonic velocity. This theory had been validated in homogeneous media and used in steel to evaluated stresses in steel bolt for example. The concrete is a heterogeneous medium where the ultrasonic velocity measurement is more difficult than in steel. The scattered waves induce uncertainty in the measured values but the nonlinear behaviour of concrete is more important than the one of steel. We show an application in high performance concrete submitted to uniaxial compression. We measured velocities of longitudinal and transversal transmitted ultrasonic waves in the direction of the stress and perpendicular to the stress at different stage of the stress test. The sensibilities of the velocities are observed and the potential to evaluate stress in concrete in shown. The prospect concern the widening of formulation tested and the in situ measurements. This study is supported by ANR-ACTENA, a french research program.