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Effect of moisture on the reliability of void detection in brickwork masonry using radar, ultrasonic and complex resistivity tomography

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Abstract

The influence of moisture on the reliability of detection of larger voids in brickwork masonry was investigated using three non-destructive techniques: radar, ultrasonic and complex resistivity (CR). Radar and ultrasonic travel time tomography, as well as CR tomography, were performed over a specific cross section of a specimen containing a large void at a known position to determine the influence of different levels of moisture content in the brickwork on the wave velocities and the CR magnitude. We defined a numerical estimator to quantitatively determine the void detection efficiency from the images obtained when exposing the specimen to moisture. The results showed radar to be the most reliable technique for void detection in both dry and wet masonry, while CR performed much better in detecting larger air voids in wet masonry.

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Acknowledgments

The first author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Slovenian Research Agency through grant 1000-10-310156 and the Slovene Human Resources and Scholarship Fund through grant 11012-13/2011. The authors wish to thank Jens Wöstmann and Maria Grohmann for their help during the measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics, Jadranska 19, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Patricia Cotic & Zvonko Jaglicic

  2. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Jamova 2, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Patricia Cotic, Zvonko Jaglicic & Vlatko Bosiljkov

  3. BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Unter den Eichen 87, 12205, Berlin, Germany

    Ernst Niederleithinger, Ute Effner, Sabine Kruschwitz & Christiane Trela

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  1. Patricia Cotic
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  2. Zvonko Jaglicic
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  3. Ernst Niederleithinger
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  4. Ute Effner
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  5. Sabine Kruschwitz
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  6. Christiane Trela
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  7. Vlatko Bosiljkov
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Correspondence to Patricia Cotic.

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Cotic, P., Jaglicic, Z., Niederleithinger, E. et al. Effect of moisture on the reliability of void detection in brickwork masonry using radar, ultrasonic and complex resistivity tomography. Mater Struct 46, 1723–1735 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-012-0011-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-012-0011-3

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