JOURNAL OF ROCK MECHANICS

JOURNAL OF ROCK MECHANICS

Damage detection in cement mortar samples using wavelet transform analysis of non-destructive ultrasonic test results

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Faculty of Mining Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
In many previous studies on the nondestructive evaluation of cementitious materials, the primary focus has been on measuring ultrasonic pulse velocity, while signal analysis has largely remained qualitative or generalized. However, quantitative analysis of ultrasonic signal energy within specific frequency bands using wavelet-based techniques represents a research gap. This study explores the application of ultrasonic nondestructive testing for detecting defects and discontinuities in cement mortar samples with varying mix designs. Mortar samples with different cement contents (CC) were analyzed to investigate the relationship between material composition, wave velocity, and transit time. Ultrasonic signals were processed using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT) to assess energy distribution across targeted frequency bands. Results revealed that the relative energy in the healthy frequency range was 95.5% in intact samples and 80.55% in damaged samples, while the energy in the damaged frequency band increased from 2.42% to approximately 11.26%. Additionally, increasing the cement content by about 20% improved the homogeneity of the samples, as the ultrasonic pulse velocity rose from 4007.62 m/s in the CC10 sample to 9768.5 m/s in the CC20 sample. The novelty of this research lies in integrating ultrasonic testing with wavelet-based energy analysis in specific frequency bands and quantitatively evaluating the impact of cement percentage on damage detection accuracy. This approach enables precise identification of damage even in low-strength samples. The study underscores the potential of signal processing techniques for effective defect detection and material homogeneity assessment in cement mortar samples with variable cement content.
Keywords
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