Electrical resistance tomography for imaging concrete structures

Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) has been used to non-destructively examine the interior of reinforced concrete pillars in the laboratory during a water infiltration experiment. ERT is a technique for determining the electrical resistivity distribution within a volume from measurement of injected currents and the resulting electrical potential distribution on the surface. The transfer resistance (ratio of potential to injected current) data are inverted using an algorithm based on a finite element forward solution which is iteratively adjusted in a least squares sense until the measured and calculated transfer resistances agree to within some predetermined value. Laboratory specimens of concrete pillars, 61.0 cm (24 in) in length and 20.3 cm (8 in) on a side, were prepared with various combinations of steel reinforcing bars and voids (1.27 cm diameter) which ran along the length of the pillars. An array of electrodes was placed around the pillar to allow for injecting current and measuring the resulting potentials. After the baseline resistivity distribution was determined, water was added to a void near one comer of the pillar. ERT was used to determine the resistivity distribution of the pillar at regular time intervals as water was added. The ERT images show very clearly that the water was gradually imbibed into the concrete pillar during the course of the experiment. The resistivity decreased by nearly an order of magnitude near the point of water addition in the first hour, and by nearly two orders of magnitude by the end of the experiment. Other applications for this technology include monitoring of curing in concrete structures, detecting cracks in concrete structures, detecting rebar location and corrosion state, monitoring slope stability and the stability of footings, detecting and monitoring leaks from storage tanks, monitoring thermal processes during environmental remediation, and for detecting and monitoring contaminants in soil and groundwater