Nondestructive Evaluation of Localized Rebar Corrosion in Concrete Using Vibro-Radar Based on Pulse Doppler Imaging

Abstract

Early nondestructive inspection of rebar corrosion in reinforced concrete structures is important, but a practical, accurate, high-speed, and high-resolution method has not yet been proposed. We have proposed a vibro-Doppler radar (VDR) method for quantitative evaluation of rebar corrosion based on vibration displacement of a rebar sinusoidally vibrated by an excitation coil. However, this method is not practical because it is not quick enough, requiring two minutes for a measurement at one point. In this paper, a VDR system based on a pulse radar, which is 100 times faster than the conventional system, was developed, and its effectiveness was verified using a concrete specimen. As a result, it was found that a 30-cm section could be scanned in about 2 min. Furthermore, the vibration displacements spatially distributed on the rebar were monitored while the rebar was corroded by electrolytic corrosion tests. As a result, it was found that the vibration displacement increased locally with a width of a few centimeters, and their positions corresponded to the positions of sectional loss of rebar due to corrosion, indicating that this method can be used for nondestructive evaluation of localized rebar corrosion.

Keywords

• nondestructive evaluation
• rebar corrosion
• GPR
• pulse Doppler radar
• forced vibration
• displacement measurement