Concrete Strength Development Monitoring Technique for Automatic Construction Management of Nuclear Power plants

Abstract

<p> Recently, demands for the construction of nuclear power plants(NPP) using high strength concrete(HSC) has been increased. However, HSC might be susceptible to brittle fracture if the curing process is inadequate. To prevent unexpected collapse during and after the construction of HSC structures, it is essential to confirm the strength development of HSC during the curing process. In this study, a novel method to estimate the strength development of HSC based on internal harmonic wave measurements using an embedded piezoelectric sensor is proposed. The amplitude of propagated harmonic wave along the concrete media was tracked to monitor the strength development of NPP concrete. In addition, the strength estimation equation was derived using regression method. The results confirmed that the proposed technique can be applied successfully monitoring of the strength development during the curing process of HSC structures.</p>