UNIVERSITY OF GAZIANTEP

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
CIVIL DEPARTMENT

CE-550
NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING AND EVALUATION
IN STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

: Report About
(The Using and application of Impact-Eco test as
anon destructive test method in structural
engineering)

:Submitted to
Do.Dr.ESSRA GUNAYISI

:Prepared by
Chalak Ahmed Mohammed
chalak.mohammed@gmail.com

45056 2014

Date: 03.04. 2015

LIST OF CONTENT

Abstract
The Impact-Echo Method
Destructive and Nondestructive Testing
How Impact-Echo Works
The Impact-Echo Test System

Applications

Abstract
Impact-echo is an acoustic method for nondestructive evaluation of concrete and
masonry, invented at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in the mid-1980's,
and developed at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, from 1987-1997. This
article provides a brief description of the method, information about test equipment
manufactured by Impact-Echo Instruments, LLC of Ithaca, New York , a description
of a new book about impact-echo, and a list of case studies describing a variety of
applications. In December of 1997 the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM)
approved a new standard entitled, "Standard Test Method for Measuring the P-Wave
Speed and the Thickness of Concrete Plates Using the Impact-Echo Method." This
standard will appear in the 1998 Annual Book of ASTM Standards

The Impact-Echo Method

Impact-echo is a method for nondestructive testing of concrete and masonry structures
that is based on the use of impact-generated stress (sound) waves that propagate
through concrete and masonry and are reflected by internal flaws and external
surfaces. Impact-echo can be used to determine the location and extent of flaws such
as cracks, delaminations, voids, honeycombing, and debonding in plain, reinforced,
and post-tensioned concrete structures, including plates (slabs, pavements, walls,
decks), layered plates (including concrete with asphalt overlays), columns and beams
(round, square, rectangular and many I and T cross-sections), and hollow cylinders
(pipes, tunnels, mine shaft liners, tanks). The method can be used to locate voids in the
grouted tendon ducts of many types of post-tensioned structures. It can provide
thickness measurements of concrete slabs with an accuracy better than three percent,
and it can locate voids in the subgrade directly beneath slabs and pavements. The
method can be used to determine thickness or to locate cracks, voids, and other defects
in masonry structures where the brick or block units are bonded together with mortar.
3

When properly used the impact-echo method has achieved unparalleled success in
locating flaws and defects in highway pavements, bridges, buildings, tunnels, dams,
piers, sea walls, and many other types of structures. Its use has resulted in savings of
millions of dollars in repair and retrofit costs on bridges, retaining walls and other
large structures.

Impact-echo is not a "black-box" system that can perform blind tests on concrete
and masonry structures and always tell what is inside. The method is used most
successfully to identify and quantify suspected problems within a structure, in quality
control applications, such as measuring the thickness of new highway pavements, and
in preventive maintenance programs, such as routine evaluation of bridge decks to
detect delaminations. In all of these situations, impact-echo testing has a focused
objective, such as locating cracks, voids or delaminations, determining the thickness
of concrete slabs, or checking a post-tensioned structure for voids in the grouted
tendon ducts. Experience has shown that a thorough understanding of the impact-echo
method and knowledge about the structure being tested are both essential for
successful field work.
The impact-echo method was invented and diverse applications were developed in a
relatively short period of time, largely through the efforts of small research groups at
the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (from 1983-86) and Cornell University (1987present). Detailed information about the method and its applications has been
available only through technical reports and journal articles of limited distribution.
While the term "impact-echo" has gained widespread use, it has been misapplied to
other techniques to which it bears little relation. The purpose of this book is to provide
a single, comprehensive, authoritative source of information for engineers, scientists,
students and others who wish to understand the impact-echo method and make full use
of its capabilities. Case studies illustrating the use of the method are presented
throughout the book.

Destructive and Nondestructive Testing

The traditional, and still most widely used, test methods for concrete and masonry
are destructive methods, such as coring, drilling or otherwise removing part of the
structure to permit visual inspection of the interior. While these methods are highly
reliable, they are also time consuming and expensive, and the defects they leave
behind often become focal points for deterioration.
Over the past several decades, a range of nondestructive tests, including X-rays,
gamma rays, radar, infra-red thermography, and acoustic methods, have become
widely used, not only for concrete, but for other structural materials [Malhotra &
Carino, 1991; Carino, 1994]. Acoustic methods are the oldest and most widely used
form of nondestructive testing. They are based on the propagation, and in some cases
reflection, of stress waves in solids. A well known example is striking an object with
a hammer and listening to variations in the "ringing" sound to detect the presence of
internal voids, cracks or other defects. Three techniques based on stress wave
propagation, and differentiated by the methods used to generate and receive stress
waves, have been used for evaluation of concrete. They are the through-transmission
or pulse-velocity method, resonance methods, and echo methods [Sansalone and
Carino, 1986]. We restrict our interest here to echo methods for flaw detection in
1
concrete
structures
other
than
deep
foundations
.
1
There are a variety of impact-based techniques for testing deep foundations
[Malhotra and Carino, 1991].
In echo methods a stress pulse is introduced into the test
medium at an accessible surface by a transducer or by
mechanical impact. If a transmitter is used, the method is
called pulse-echo; if mechanical impact is used, the
method is called impact-echo. As shown in Figure 1, in
pulse-echo techniques the pulse propagates through the
medium and is reflected by material defects or by
Figure 1. Schematic of pulseecho
technique applied to the
interfaces between regions of different densities and/or
testing of concrete.
elastic moduli. These reflected waves, or echoes, are
monitored by a second transducer coupled to the surface of the test object near the
pulse source. The transducer output is displayed on an oscilloscope or similar device.
5

Using the time base of the display, the travel time of the pulse is determined. If the
wave velocity in the medium is known, the travel time can be used to determine the
location of the defect or interface where the reflection occurs.
Since their introduction in the early 1940s, ultrasonic pulse-echo methods have been
developed extensively, and have been become an efficient, versatile and reliable
nondestructive test method for metals, plastics, and other homogeneous materials.
Apart from limited use in detecting flaws in or measuring the thickness of thin
concrete members, ultrasonic methods have previously had little success in the testing
of concrete, because the high-frequency stress waves they employ (typically 100 kHz
and above) are strongly attenuated by the heterogeneous nature of this material.
In the early 1970s, impact methods began to be used for integrity testing of deep
foundations, such as piles. Hammers were used to generate very low frequency waves
(less than 1 kHz) that could be used to determine the length of piles [Sansalone and
Carino, 1986; Malhotra and Carino, 1991]. In the early 1980s research engineers at the
U.S. National Bureau of Standards explored the use of short duration mechanical
impacts, produced by small steel spheres, as a source of stress waves for testing
concrete structural elements, such as slabs [Sansalone, 1986; Sansalone and Carino,
1986]. They found that by carefully choosing the diameter of the sphere, it is possible
to generate stress waves with frequencies up to about 80 kHz that propagate through
concrete as though it were a homogeneous elastic medium, but are reflected from
internal flaws and interfaces. Researchers at National Bureau of Standards coined the
term impact-echo to describe this method, and to set it apart from pulse-echo methods
in which transducers are used to generate stress waves. In the mid-1990s this method
was extended to masonry structures [Williams and Sansalone, 1996; Williams, et. al.,
1997].

How Impact-Echo Works

Impact-echo is based on the use of transient stress waves
generated by elastic impact. A diagram of the method is
shown in Figure 2. A short-duration mechanical impact,
produced by tapping a small steel sphere against a
concrete or masonry surface, is used to generate lowfrequency stress waves that propagate into the structure
and are reflected by flaws and/or external surfaces.
Surface displacements caused by reflections of these
Figure 2. Simplified diagram of the
impact-echo method.
waves are recorded by a transducer, located adjacent to
the impact. The resulting displacement versus time
signals are transformed into the frequency domain, and
plots of amplitude versus frequency (spectra) are
obtained. Multiple reflections of stress waves between the impact surface, flaws,
and/or other external surfaces give rise to transient resonances, which can be identified
in the spectrum, and used to evaluate the integrity of the structure or to determine the
location of flaws.
It is the patterns present in the waveforms and spectra (especially the latter) that
provide information about the existence and locations of flaws, or the dimensions of
the cross-section of the structure where a test is performed, such as the thickness of a
pavement. For each of the common geometrical forms encountered in concrete
structures (plates; circular and rectangular columns; rectangular, I-, and T-beams;
hollow cylinders; etc.), impact-echo tests on a solid structure produce distinctive
waveforms and spectra, in which the dominant patterns-especially the number and
distribution of peaks in the spectra-are easily recognized. If flaws are present (cracks,
voids, delaminations, etc.) these patterns are disrupted and changed, in ways that
provide qualitative and quantitative information about the existence and location of the
flaws.

The Impact-Echo Test System

A typical impact-echo test system is shown in the
adjacent photograph. Its principal components are a
cylindrical handheld transducer unit; a set of spherical
impactors; a portable computer; a high-speed, analog-todigital data acquisition system (on a full-sized ISA card
installed in the computer); and a software program that
controls and monitors the test and displays the results in
numerical and graphical form. The entire system weighs
A typical impact-echo test system
less than 14 kilograms (about 30 pounds) and is
powered by a 110/220-volt a.c. source or by a 12-volt
car or truck battery. Two hand-held units, clamped in a
spacer bar, are used to measure wave speed. A single hand-held unit, as shown here, is
used for impact-echo testing.

I. Basic impact-echo hardware and software, without a computer.

Systems Type A and Type B described here do not include a computer, and are
designed for users who have suitable computer or wish to select their own. For
information on selected complete systems, including a computer, scroll down this
page. Click here for general information on computer
requirements and recommendations.

Impact-Echo Test System, Type A

The Type A impact-echo Test System includes the
following items:
1.

A Data Acquisition System (full

size ISA card), 5 megasamples per second
maximum speed;

Impact-Echo Test System,

Type A
8

2.

One cylindrical hand-held transducer unit;

3.

A box 0f 200 replacement lead disks for the transducer unit;

4.

Ten spherical impactors, 1/8" (3mm) to 3/4" (19mm)

diameter;

5.

One 12-foot (3.7-meter) cable and one 25-foot (7.6-meter)

cable for connecting the transducer unit to the data acquisition system;

6.

One copy of the impact-echo operating software on 3.5-in

floppy disks (the software is called "Imago" - the Latin word for echo or image);

7.

A software package labeled "Demo-Tutorial" containing an

animated, stress wave simulation program and a tutorial for Imago software
(on floppy disks);

8.

Two Sentinel Hardware Keys for software protection (a key

must be attached to the computer to enable the software to run);

9.
o

Printed materials:
Book: "Impact-Echo: Nondestructive Evaluation of Concrete and
Masonry", by. M. J. Sansalone and W. B. Streett (1997), 339 pp., Bullbrier
Press, R.R. 1, Box 332, Jersey Shore, PA 17740, USA.

Instruction Manual for impact-echo test system.

Software Manual for Imago software system.

Impact-Echo Test System, Type B

The Impact-Echo Test System, Type B, is the same as Type A, above, with the
following additional items:
o

One additional hand-held transducer unit, cylindrical model, with

two additional cables;

Spacer bar for use with 2 transducers for independent

measurements of wave speed.

Applications
When properly used, the impact-echo method has achieved unparalleled success in
locating flaws and defects in highway pavements, bridges, buildings, tunnels, dams,
piers, sea walls and many other types of structures. It can also be used to measure the
thickness of concrete slabs (pavements, floors, walls, etc.) with an accuracy of 3
percent or better.
Impact-echo is not a "black-box" system that can perform blind tests on concrete and
masonry structures and always tell what is inside. The method is used most
successfully to identify and quantify suspected problems within a structure, in quality
control applications (such as measuring the thickness of highway pavements) and in
preventive maintenance programs (such as routine evaluation of bridge decks to detect
delaminations). In each of these situations, impact-echo testing has a focused
objective, such as locating cracks, voids or delaminations, determining the thickness
of concrete slabs or checking a post-tensioned structure for voids in the grouted tendon
ducts.

10

Regards...

11