Publication

Abstract : Damage identification of the concrete pile element through torsional wave propagation technique is studied in this paper. Concrete pile foundations are often prevalent in all engineering structures and their safety is paramount for obviating the failure. Damage detection and estimation in a substructure is difficult because the visual image of the substructure and its condition is not acknowledged and, therefore, the state of the structure or foundation can be inferred solely through its static and dynamic response which is usually carried out by using Pile Integrity Testing (PIT), includes axial wave propagation approach. This paper explores a novel idea on damage identification of the concrete pile element through torsional wave propagation technique using analytical study. Structural damage is induced in the concrete pile elements by varying the cross-sectional area along the length and the position of the damage is also varied. Analytical simulations are performed using Abaqus dynamic explicit analysis under pulse-echo configuration method. The effect of reduction of area (or an increase of area) causes a reduction in stiffness, as well as mass and thus torsional impedance, is not altered to a great extent. In the case of uniform wave propagation, the transient pulse is preserved and the response is quiet and hence the damage identification is very easy when compared to dispersive flexural wave propagation. Hence, the elapsed time of the reflected pulse can be a simple indicator of the location of the damage.