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Three Milwaukee researchers have been awarded an international honor for a paper they published on non-destructive testing (NDT) of concrete. Tarun Naik, director of the UWM Center for By-Products Utilization (CBU), Shiw Singh, a former CBU research associate, and John Zachar, a Milwaukee School of Engineering professor, collaborated on the paper, "Application of Infrared Thermography Technique for Existing Concrete Structures."
The paper was presented at the "Structural Faults & Repair-'97" conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in July 1997. It was chosen for the NDT Award for Best Paper on NDT Techniques by the Engineer Technics Press, a division of Engineering and Scientific Publishers of Edinburgh.
The paper detailed the results of a field study, using an infrared thermographic scanning system, of a Milwaukee bridge deck at a freeway interchange.
Infrared thermography is used to measure concrete surface temperature or temperature differences of concrete.
The Milwaukee team reported on use of the technique to study the Zoo interchange, where they discovered several subsurface anomalies that were undetectable in a visual inspection. Such anomalies indicate changes in surface temperatures due to defects in the concrete.
According to Naik, measuring very minor temperature differences in this manner has been made possible by advances in technology.
"This new technique is very heat-sensitive and can detect temperature differences within half a degree," he explained. "It would not have been feasible 15 years ago for civil engineering applications because the technology wasn't advanced enough."
The paper concluded that such testing could be conducted on a regular basis as a form of preventive maintenance. A database could be established to monitor the deterioration of pavement from year to year. Such systematic evaluation could discover patterns of deterioration before it reaches critical levels needing massive repairs.
According to S. H. Chan, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science, such a database would demonstrate the value of applied research.
"Preventive maintenance is a key in today's environment, and I am pleased to see the quality research of members of our college translated into a practical application," he said.
Singh, who currently works as a staff engineer at International Environmental Corporation in Butler, said the paper summarized previous NDT efforts and pointed to new directions in the field.
"It was a look at what the state of the art could be," he explained. "It explored how civil engineers could adapt technology to their use."