Pile defect assessment using distributed temperature sensing: fundamental questions examined
Author | Sun, Qianchen |
Author | Elshafie, Mohammed ZEB |
Author | Xu, Xiaomin |
Author | Schooling, Jennifer |
Available date | 2024-08-05T07:19:21Z |
Publication Date | 2024 |
Publication Name | Structural Health Monitoring |
Resource | Scopus |
ISSN | 14759217 |
Abstract | Thermal integrity testing has been successfully used to assess the quality of cast-in-place piles for the past decade. It employs temperature data measured during concrete curing to identify defects along the piles' length. However, the uptake of this technology has been rather limited in the piling industry. The main concerns are that the method is not standardised and its reliability is not well understood. In order to address these, there are a number of fundamental questions that need to be explored in more detail, including (a) the optimum time to conduct the assessment, (b) the defect thermal impact, (c) the zone of influence on temperature sensors, (d) the minimum detectable size of a defect and (e) the associated optimum sensor location required. In this paper, experimental and numerical studies were conducted to examine these questions. Fibre optic sensors were employed on model concrete piles in laboratory tests to provide fully distributed temperature data throughout the curing process. The test results showed that the optimum time to assess the defects is approximately at 60% of the time to reach peak temperature and the minimal detectable defect size, using the currently available optical fibre sensor technology, is 4% of the cross-sectional area. In addition, the thermal influence of different defect sizes is presented. Following this, it is shown in the paper that the minimum numbers of sensor cables required to identify defects with cross-sectional areas of 4%, 5% and 8% are eight, six and four cables, respectively. The optimum layout of these sensor cables within a pile cross-section has also been discussed. When specifying pile instrumentation for integrity assessment, the findings of this paper enable practising engineers to make informed judgements in relation to the size of defects they would like to detect (and hence the associated risk this entails) together with the corresponding instrumentation layout required. |
Sponsor | The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research has received support from the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) at the University of Cambridge which is within the Construction Innovation Hub and is funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Industrial Strategy Fund. This work is also performed in the framework of ITN-FINESSE, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action grant agreement no. 722509. |
Language | en |
Publisher | SAGE Publications Ltd |
Subject | finite element modelling non-destructive test pile anomaly detection structural health monitoring Thermal integrity test |
Type | Article |
Pagination | 1701-1724 |
Issue Number | 3 |
Volume Number | 23 |
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Civil & Architectural Engineering [778 items ]