Adaptation of the SonReb method to the mea-surement of the compressive strength of a two-layers concrete structure

Abstract

The three most common building materials which most structures are built from are: timber, steel and Reinforcement Concrete (RC). Estimating the in-situ compressive strength is an imperative issue to evaluate the performance of in-situ concrete structures during their service life. Most codes and technical recommendations indicate that in-situ concrete strength should be estimated by means of cores, possibly supplemented by Non-Destructive tests. In this study a series of ultrasonic refraction measurements on a two layers slabs (mortar over concrete) are carried out in order to recover the velocity of the compression waves of each layer in view of combining the results with the rebound method in order to estimate the compressive strength of the mortar layer. Accuracy of measurements of compression wave propagation velocities and errors on the estimation of the compressive strength are investigated.