Field Portable Infrastructure Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composite Inspection & Evaluation System Using Ultrasound Technologies

"Recently, significant attention has been paid to the country's dilapidated infrastructure; buildings, bridges, and concrete water and sewer pipes need to be retrofitted to sustain the increasing loads. A common solution is to increase the capacity ofthese structures to carry loads by the introduction of additional tension-carrying materials such as Fiber Reinforced Plastic composites. Efficient use of FRP composite to increase the strength of concrete components depends on the proper bonding betweenthe FRP plate and the rehabilitated structure. It is therefore very important that delamination defects present at the interface or within the composite be detected in order to maintain the structural integrity of the reinforced concrete component.However, composites are very sophisticated materials with a complex structure and anisotropic material properties, which are very difficult to inspect using conventional Non Destructive Inspection/Evaluation (NDI/E) methods. There is definite need for thedevelopment of new NDI/E technologies, which can address this complicated inspection problem. In Phase I Physical Acoustics Corporation (PAC) tested and further developed a unique Acousto-Ultrasonic (AU) technology, which has potential as a tool for theinspection of these FRP composites. This Phase II study will focus on the design, development and fabrication of a prototype inspection system that is field-portable and battery operated for