Effects of Concrete on Propagation Characteristics of Guided Wave in Steel Bar Embedded in Concrete

Techniques based on ultrasonic guided waves (UGWs) play important roles in the structural health monitoring (SHM) of large-scale civil infrastructures. In this paper, dispersion equations of longitudinal wave propagation in reinforced concrete member are investigated for the purpose of monitoring steels embedded in concrete. For a steel bar embedded in concrete, not the velocity but the attenuation dispersion curves will be affected by the concrete. The effects of steel-to-concrete shear modulus ratio, density ratio, and Poisson’s ratio on propagation characteristics of guided wave in steel bar embedded in concrete were studied by the analysis of the real and imaginary parts of the wave number. The attenuation characteristics of guided waves of steel bar in different conditions including different bar concrete constraint and different diameter of steel bar are also analyzed. Studies of the influence of concrete on propagation characteristics of guided wave in steel bars embedded in concrete will increase the accuracy in judging the structure integrity and promote the level of defect detection for the steel bars embedded in concrete