EMAT-Based Inspection of Concrete-Filled Steel Pipes for Internal Voids and Inclusions

Abstract

Concrete-filled steel pipes have been used as piles for supporting civil and marine structures. These piles provide good bending resistance, and can be easily spliced for long depth installation. However, these piles are usually exposed in hostile environments such as seawater and deicing materials. Thus, the outside corrosion of the steel pipe can reduce the wall thickness and the corrosion-induced delamination of internal concrete can increase internal volume or pressure. In addition, the void that can possibly exist in the pipe reduces the bending resistance. To avoid structural failure due to this type of deterioration, appropriate inspection and repair techniques are to be developed. The acoustic method is attractive for this inspection since it is relatively simple and versatile. Especially, guided wave techniques have strong potentials for this inspection because of long-distance inspection capability. There are different transducer-coupling mechanisms available for the guided wave inspection techniques. Electro-magnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) give relatively consistent results in comparison to piezoelectric transducers since they do not need any couplant. EMATs are used for transmitting and receiving cylindrical guided waves through concrete-filled steel pipes. It is shown that EMAT-generated cylindrical guided wave techniques have good potential for the interface inspection of concrete-filled steel pipes.