Title : Health Monitoring in Mass Concrete Structures Using Non Destructive Techniques
Authors : Sameer Vyas,R.P.Pathak,Pankaj Sharma,N.V.Mahure and Neetu Singh
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Price : 250
Abstract : Reinforced concrete structures have the potential to be very durable and capable of withstanding a variety of adverse environmental conditions. However, failures in the structures do still occur as a result of poor quality control practices, aggressive surrounding environment, soft water attack, heavy leaching and premature reinforcement corrosion. The maintenance and repair of mass concrete structures required effective inspection and monitoring techniques for assessing the health condition of structures. Engineers need better techniques for assessing the condition of the structure when the maintenance or repair is required. These methods need to be able to identify any possible durability problems within structures before they become serious. This paper reviews the applications of the electrochemical and non-destructive techniques for the assessment of possible deterioration of mass concrete structures used in the hydro projects. The hydro power projects comprises various concrete structure viz. dam body, foundation galleries, inspection galleries, power house complex, headrace tunnel, tail race tunnel etc. which are constructed using concrete linings of different grades. Its durability is determined by various factors viz. aggressivity of surrounding water, temperatures fluctuations, leaching etc. If the water happens to be soft it is injurious to the useful life of concrete as it leads to leaching of lime. Leaching is a phenomenon that is caused by water migrating through the permeable concrete. The permeated water causes corrosion of reinforcement leading to weakening of structure. Once such phenomenon is observed in any such structures a vigilant periodic monitoring approach becomes mandatory. The suitable remedial measure to be adopted will depend on the observed degree of deterioration. In this paper effort has been made to diagnose degree of deterioration using non-destructive techniques at different locations in the power house complex and dam foundation galleries.