A study on the diagnosis method of concrete structures of school buildings using non-destructive tests based on stress waves

Abstract

As most of the elementary, junior high, and high school buildings nationwide have been deteriorated since the quantitative increase of the buildings from 1985, many experts present the issues on the possibility of the structural instability of the building as well as the increase of the cost for maintenance of the building. So, it is necessary to examine the necessary structural information of the school buildings during the course of maintaining education facilities, and it is also necessary to establish some credible accessing procedures on the deteriorating school facilities so that the building structural engineers can propose the necessary standards for the proper maintenance and repairing works. To achieve the necessity, researches have been conducted to find out the ways of diagnosing the compressive strength and the durability of the concrete structures by measuring the compression wave velocity of concrete structures and the flaw detection inside the concrete specimens using the impact echo method, a non-destructive test to simulate the structures of school buildings. In this research, it was found that the impact echo method has great potentials in the application of the building structure maintenance and the repairing activities based on the accurate understanding of the existing school facilities that are being deteriorated. More over, school facilities has sometimes no structural design drawings available which NDT methods can contribute to detect the internal structural damages of existing building structures.