Non-Destructive Testing Of Concrete Bridges

Non-destructive testing is of great value in cases where a structure's future is investigated to find out what the best measure is. It is not always the best solution to demolish and build new. Many structures can be repaired and function several more years. In this thesis the main goal is to investigate some different non-destructive techniques and learn more about difficulties and strengths. The test subjects will be a cast T-beam in a laboratory environment as well as a case study of a railway bridge in Abisko. The different testing equipment being used in this thesis is a covermeter, a rebound hammer and ultrasonic pulse velocity. For both the T-beam and the bridge the results are overall very good. The covermeter is proven to be both easy to use and very reliable and the ultrasonic pulse velocity was more to learn about and more difficult but is giving very good results as well. Conclusions after the thesis project is that it requires a lot of experience of the user and time to make non-destructive testing useful and competitive in the society. Getting all the pieces together it is a powerful tool that hopefully is a sustainable asset in the future, regarding both economic and environmental issues.