Specialty Field Testing

This book is intended as a reference book for engineers and scientists who wish to understand the impact-echo method and its applications, as a source book for engineers and technicians who use impact-echo in field testing, and as a text for undergraduate and graduate courses on nondestructive testing and evaluation of structures.

Based on the use of transient stress waves generated by elastic impact. A short duration mechanical impact produced by tapping a small steel sphere against a concrete or masonry surface is used to generate low-frequency stress waves that propagate into the structure and are reflected by flaws and/or external surfaces.

This test can be performed on site using a portable, computer-operated field unit, impact echo testing Can be used to detect cracks, voids honeycombing, and debonding in solid and reinforced concrete bridge decks with asphalt overlays.