Experimental Investigation of Cementitious Materials Using the Prism Technique

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that the non-destructive testing has proved the exceptional role in supervising the quality of concrete. Today, they represent an alternative that contributes to the resolution of materials diagnostic problems without altering them. This work presents an experimental study using a pulse-echo method that has the advantage of generating two types of wave (compressional and shear) by a mode conversion using just one transducer. The samples were made in a prismatic form. The results recovered from backscattered echoes are extracted using an estimation algorithm. These data were exploited to determine velocities of the tested material then the reflection coefficients for related them with the compressive strength. The tests were conducted with six samples with varied water/cement ratio. The results obtained showed that the prism technique has the potential to evaluate characteristics cementitious material using this proposed process.