Evaluation of freezing and thawing damage of concrete using a nonlinear ultrasonic method

Freezing and thawing cycles induce deterioration and strength degradation of concrete structures. This study presumes that a large quantity of contact-type defects develop due to the freezing and thawing cycles of concrete and evaluates the degree of defects based on a nonlinearity parameter. The nonlinearity parameter was obtained by an impact-modulation technique, one of the nonlinear ultrasonic methods. It is then used as an indicator of the degree of contact-type defects. Five types of damaged samples were fabricated according to different freezing and thawing cycles, and the occurrence of opening or cracks on a micro-scale was visually verified via scanning electron microscopy. Dynamic modulus and wave velocity were also measured for a sensitivity comparison with the obtained nonlinearity parameter. The possibility of evaluating strength degradation was also investigated based on a simple correlation of the experimental results.