Detection of Cavities Beneath Plate Structure using a Microphone

Abstract

Failure of plate structures such as pavements can be caused by the occurrence of cavities beneath the structure. In this study, a cavity beneath the plate structure were detected in a laboratory model chamber using a hammer and microphone. Specifically, a chamber was constructed using an acrylic plate and dry soil to simulate the pavement and the subgrade, respectively. A plastic box was placed between the acrylic plate and dry soil to simulate a cavity beneath the pavement. The sound waves generated by impacting the acrylic plate with a hammer were measured using a microphone. The measured area under the rectified signal envelope (MARSE) energy was calculated for the measured sound waves, and the variation in it were analyzed according to the measurement location. The test results show that the signal attenuation was low at the cavity section owing to the conservation of impact energy and that the signal amplitude becomes lower at the soil section owing to the weakened flexural vibration. Therefore, the estimated MARSE energy at the cavity section was larger than that at the soil section. This study demonstrates the effective utilization of microphones for detecting cavities beneath the plate structures.