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Air voids in concrete like honeycombs are one of the major concerns regarding quality assurance for the construction of infrastructure buildings like bridges or tunnels. This paper shows that voids in reinforced concrete walls or slabs can be detected by two standard ground coupled GPR antennas in transmission mode using a two-side zero-offset profiling configuration like in borehole radar applications. For the detection of voids only the amplitudes of the direct wave in transmission mode are evaluated. Even when the depth of the void can not be detected in this configuration, the major advantage of the zero-offset profiling in transmission mode is a lower interference with the surrounding reinforcement compared to a regular one-side reflection profiling. The capability of the two-side zero-offset profiling is demonstrated on a test specimen with a set of polystyrene balls of two different sizes representing voids like honeycombs in concrete. GPR measurements are realized by an automated scanning system in order to allow for a synchronous movement of the antennas. In transmission mode voids can be detected at greater depths compared to reflection mode, since the travel path of the direct wave is half as long. Another characteristic of the transmission mode is that the direct wave through the air voids is faster and arrives earlier than the direct wave in the surrounding concrete. Hence it can be separated from the strong reflection of the reinforcement. Finally the measurements in transmission mode are less sensitive to the antenna frequency and polarization than in reflection mode.
The concreting of prefabricated concrete structures can lead to insufficient bonding or even to remaining cavities. Honeycombs (aggregate clusters without cement) represent potential weakening of the structure and need to be detected non-destructively. In our study we tested the capability of ground penetrating radar (GPR) techniques for this purpose. We applied GPR in reflection mode and zero-offset profiling (ZOP) transmission mode on a precast concrete twin wall with built-in honeycombs. GPR measurements were performed as two channel measurement with ground coupled antennas with centre frequencies of 1.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz mounted to an automated scanner system.
Our findings show that ZOP transmission measurements are a more efficient method to detect voids in reinforced concrete structures compared to reflection mode measurements. This holds for both the effort needed for the measurement and the evaluation as well as the validity of the data. Honeycombs (basically representing voids) are usually characterized by strongly reduced amplitudes and earlier arrivals of the transmitted wave.
The influence of moisture on the reliability of detection of larger voids in brickwork masonry was investigated using three non-destructive techniques: radar, ultrasonic and complex resistivity (CR). Radar and ultrasonic travel time tomography, as well as CR tomography, were performed over a specific cross section of a specimen containing a large void at a known position to determine the influence of different levels of moisture content in the brickwork on the wave velocities and the CR magnitude. We defined a numerical estimator to quantitatively determine the void detection efficiency from the images obtained when exposing the specimen to moisture. The results showed radar to be the most reliable technique for void detection in both dry and wet masonry, while CR performed much better in detecting larger air voids in wet masonry.