Estimation of the Compressive Strength of Concrete Using Shear Wave Velocity

Abstract

Compressive strength of concrete is a very important parameter in the quality control of both new and existing concrete pavement. It has been widely used to evaluate the concrete strength both in the laboratory and in the construction field regardless of whether numerous mix designs or identical mixtures are used. Errors usually happen in the compressive strength test even if the mixture is evenly mixed and compacted into test specimens. This is caused by either by the hand-operated testing machine or by the eccentricity between the specimen and the testing machine. If concrete specimens with identical mix design need to be tested at various curing ages every time concrete is used in the construction field, the result is significant waste of time, money and efforts are required. Consequently, there is a real need to replace the repeated compressive strength tests with the introduction of nondestructive tests to estimate compressive strength of concrete. In this study, a nondestructive test method using elastic waves was used because shear wave velocity is not affected by restraint conditions. The compressive strength of concrete was estimated according to various curing ages as well. In the results, shear wave velocity was very closely related to the compressive strength. The results further showed that the estimation of compressive strength of concrete using shear wave velocity is very effective and reliable.