Discrete wavelet transform to improve guided-wave-based health monitoring of tendons and cables

Abstract

Multi-wire steel strands are used in civil structures as pre-stressing tendons in prestressed concrete and as stay-cables in cable-stayed and suspension bridges. Monitoring the structural performance of these components is important to ensure the proper functioning and safety of the entire structure. Among the various NDE techniques that are under investigation for monitoring tendons and cables, the use of ultrasonic guided waves shows good promises. The main advantage of this approach is the possibility for the simultaneous monitoring of loads and detection of defects, such as corrosion and broken wires, by using the same ultrasonic setup. Load monitoring is achieved by measuring the travel time of the wave across a given length of the cable. Defect detection is achieved by measuring the reflections of the wave from the geometrical discontinuities. The new contributions of the current paper are two-fold. First, the study identifies those ultrasonic frequencies propagating with low attenuation for long-range defect detection. Second, the technique is substantially improved by implementing the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) as a data post-processing tool. The data de-noising and data compression abilities of the DWT allow for greater sensitivity, larger ranges and higher monitoring speed. It is shown that the implementation of the DWT in the ultrasonic guided-wave technique becomes necessary for monitoring tendons and cables in the field.