Numerical investigation of the effect of heterogeneity on the attenuation of shear waves in concrete

Abstract

Although ultrasonic transducers that emit horizontal shear waves are widely used in practice, no investigation has been conducted to study the attenuation of shear waves in concrete due to scattering by aggregates and air voids. Horizontal shear waves preserve more energy in comparison with longitudinal waves when propagating in concrete in low frequencies. However, the lower wavelength of shear waves increases the potential of their scattering attenuation in concrete. In this paper, we developed a 3D numerical tool and used it to study the scattering attenuation of horizontal shear waves in concrete in the 20–150 kHz frequency range. We showed that the scattering attenuation in this frequency range strongly depends on the size and material properties of aggregates. The shape of the aggregates and the presence of air voids slightly affected the scattering attenuation.