Vol. 20 No. 3 (2023): Journal of Non Destructive Testing and Evaluation (JNDE), Sept 2023
Research Papers

Acoustic emission-based non-destructive technique for integrity assessment of heavily reinforced typical Trunnion beam of spillway structure

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  • Thirumalaiselvi A.,
  • Kannusamy M.,
  • Srinivas Voggu,
  • SAPTARSHI SASMAL
SAPTARSHI SASMAL
CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre

Published 10-09-2023

Keywords

  • Non-destructive testing,
  • acoustic emission,
  • health assessment,
  • prestressed trunnion beam

How to Cite

A., T., M., K., Voggu, S., & SASMAL, S. (2023). Acoustic emission-based non-destructive technique for integrity assessment of heavily reinforced typical Trunnion beam of spillway structure. Journal of Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation (JNDE), 20(3), 23–32. Retrieved from https://jnde.isnt.in/index.php/JNDE/article/view/46

Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation (JNDE)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Owing to the large mass of concrete with heavy reinforcement in dam spillways and the long-expected life of these structures, they are susceptible to degradation mechanisms that can start as minor problems and be present for years. The presence of initial degradation tends to accelerate future problems. For example, the presence of voids/flaws in the trunnion beams lead to greater damage if unattended. However, it is highly impossible to identify the internal voids through visual means. Further, Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) method, which is widely used for condition assessment of concrete structures, may not be effective (sometimes misleading) here due to the presence of heavily dense reinforcement and prestressing strands in large concrete trunnions.

In view of this, attempts were made to assess the health of a typical trunnion beam of the spillway structure employing the Acoustic Emission (AE) technique. During the investigations, ambient conditions (excitation due to water thrust on dam), as well as the slow movement of the radial gates, were used.  A three-dimensional sensor arrangement was used so that the acoustic source localization inside the massive concrete turions could be carried out. High-speed acquisition of data through multichannel, was performed using an integrated and synchronized AE system (with in-built amplifier). Due to the ambient condition and during gate operation, the noise generated acoustic signals were carefully discarded. Through intensive signal processing, the AE parameters, such as the number of AE hits, signal amplitude, and signal strength, were considered to assess the existing health of the trunnions. The present study discusses on typical signals, acoustic characteristics and inference from the AE-based NDT, along with the method used for acoustic source localization. The present study, the procedure and the inferences are helpful to the practising NDT engineers to perform the health assessment of concrete structures with a high amount of reinforcement.

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