Early detection of corrosion in reinforced concrete using ultrasonic-guided waves

Reinforced Concrete is one of the most widely used composite materials in the modern construction industry, but corrosion has become a significant problem worldwide, resulting in exceptionally high maintenance costs. To maintain structural integrity and safety, robust nondestructive techniques are required. Ultrasonic-guided wave (UGW) based monitoring has proven to be sensitive to a wide range of flaws, since they can propagate for long distances to inspect larger areas. Corrosion causes delamination between the reinforcing steel and concrete interface, which affects the wave propagation characteristics. In this study, we aimed at detecting early corrosion in steel-reinforced concrete by relying on UGW. Hence, UGW propagation in steel bars embedded in concrete and the inspection of leaked energy from one bar to another through propagating in the concrete medium was investigated. Since natural corrosion is a slow process, an accelerated corrosion setup was used to induce artificial corrosion using the impressed voltage approach.