On acoustic guided wave propagation in reinforced concretes and characterization of interface bonding damages

Abstract

Abstract As a possible method for structural health monitoring, guided waves are excellent for hidden damage diagnosis due to their long propagation distance and high damage sensitivity. The multimodal and dispersion phenomena are the primary challenges in the use of guided wave technology for engineering applications. Currently, plate, thin-walled tube, and rod structures—where multimodality and dispersion are comparatively mild and simple to control—remain the major applications of guided wave technology. For more complicated civil engineering structures, severe multimodal and dispersion phenomena cause more difficult issues. The present work began with the study of round-faced reinforced concrete. The waveguide propagation characteristics are computationally analyzed with the assistance of theoretical calculation methods and sweeping frequency simulation experiments. These analytical tools are then creatively applied to threaded reinforced concrete, and the dispersion characteristics of this complex, axially periodically varying waveguide are successfully analyzed. The phenomenon of frequency band pass/stop is also discussed. In addition, this research provides ideas for nondestructive testing and inverse imaging in this field by means of deep learning of the interface debonding defect characteristics of reinforced concrete with the help of convolutional neural networks. This work can be applied not only to various complex reinforced concrete structures but can also be extended to waveguide propagation analysis and defect size data inversion in various complex periodic structures.