Porosity estimation of aged mortar using a micromechanical model

Degradation of concrete structures located in high humidity atmospheres or under flowing water is a very important problem. In this study, a method for ultrasonic non-destructive characterization in aged mortar is presented. The proposed method makes a prediction of the behaviour of aged mortar accomplished with a three phase micromechanical model using ultrasonic measurements. Aging mortar was accelerated by immersing the probes in ammonium nitrate solution. Both destructive and non-destructive characterization of mortar was performed. Destructive tests of porosity were performed using a vacuum saturation method and non-destructive characterization was carried out using ultrasonic velocities. Aging experiments show that mortar degradation not only involves a porosity increase, but also microstructural changes in the cement matrix. Experimental results show that the estimated porosity using the proposed non-destructive methodology had a comparable performance to classical destructive techniques.     

Ultrasonic wave propagation in cementitious materials: A multiphase approach of a self-consistent multiple scattering model

This paper examines ultrasonic wave propagation through strongly heterogeneous materials such as cementitious materials, and deals meanly with the formulation of a multiphase approach of a self-consistent multiple scattering model, the so-called dynamic generalized self-consistent model (DGSCM) proposed by Yang [J. Appl. Mech. 70(2003) 575-582]. This extended model can describe the influence of the size and volume fraction of aggregates on cementitious materials, as well as the interaction, contribution, and influence of entrapped air voids together with the aggregates on frequency-dependent parameters such as the phase velocity and the attenuation coefficient. To show the performance of this approach, theoretical predictions were compared with experimental ultrasonic measurements over a wide frequency range from several mortar specimens with different features in their microstructure properties and concentrations of aggregates up to 60%. The multiphase approaches of both the DGSCM and the Waterman-Truell model (WT) were also compared. The obtained results of the multiphase DGSCM were found to be significantly better than those obtained from the N-phase WT model for ultrasonic measurements from cementitious materials at high aggregate concentrations. The feasibility of material characterization using the multiphase approach of DGSCM was also discussed.     

Cracks and pores – Their roles in the transmission of water confined in cementitious materials

Cement paste is formed through a process called hydration by combining water with a cementitious material. Concrete, the worlds most versatile and most widely used material, can then be obtained when aggregates (sand, gravel, crushed stone) are added to the paste. The quality of hardened concrete is greatly influenced by the water confined in the cementitious materials and how it is transmitted through cracks and pores. Here we demonstrate that the water transport in cracks and capillary pores of hardened cement pastes can be approximately modeled by simple equations. Our findings highlight the significance of arresting the development of cracks in cementitious materials used in repository barriers. We also show that neutron scattering is an advantageous technique for understanding how water transmission is effected by gel pore structures. Defining measurable differences in gel pores may hold a key to prediction of the reduction of water transport through cement barriers.     

Experimental study of wave dispersion and attenuation in concrete

Results from an experimental study concerning wave propagation in cementitious materials are presented in this paper. Narrow band pulses at several frequencies were introduced into specimens of cement paste, mortar and concrete allowing direct measurement of longitudinal wave velocities and amplitude for each frequency. It is shown that aggregate content play an important role in wave propagation increasing considerably the wave velocity, while the aggregate size seems to control the attenuation observed. Slight velocity variations observed with frequency are discussed in relation to the degree of inhomogeneity of the materials.     

Leaky Rayleigh wave investigation on mortar samples

Aggressive mineralized ground water may harm the concrete cover of tunnels and other underground constructions. Within a current research project mortar samples are used to study the effects of sulfate interaction in accelerated laboratory experiments. A nondestructive test method based on ultrasonic surface waves was developed to investigate the topmost layer of mortar samples. A pitch and catch arrangement is introduced for the generation and reception of leaky Rayleigh waves in an immersion technique allowing the measurement of their propagation velocity. The technique has been successfully verified for the reference materials aluminium, copper, and stainless steel. First measurements performed on mortar specimens demonstrate the applicability of this new diagnostic tool.     

Accuracy of spectrum estimate in fluorescence spectral microscopy with spectral filters

We establish the accuracy of the spectrum that is estimated with an inexpensive fluorescence spectral microscope utilizing a small set of spectral filters [Soriano et al, Opt. Exp. 10, 1458–1464 (2002)]. The spectrum at an arbitrary image location of the fluorescent sample is estimated as a linear superposition of basis spectra that are derived by singular value decomposition (SVD) or principal component analysis (PCA) from a spectral library of fluorescence spectra. Estimation performance is analyzed as a function of library statistics, filter selection and sequencing, minimum negativity constraint and signal to noise ratio (SNR) of fluorescence image. We consider image SNR degradations that arise from weakening of image intensity, additive Gaussian noise, intensity-dependent Poisson noise and quantization errors. The recovery of specific spectral features like spectral resolution, general similarity and peak alignments, is assessed using Linfoot’s criteria of fidelity, structural content, and correlation. We found that estimation with SVD basis spectra is more robust against image noise than that with PCA basis spectra. However for high SNR images, accurate estimation is achieved more quickly with PCA basis spectra and with better response to the application of minimum negativity constraint.     

In vitro chronic hepatic disease characterization with a multiparametric ultrasonic approach

Although, high resolution, real-time ultrasonic (US) imaging is routinely available, image interpretation is based on grey-level and texture and quantitative evaluation is limited. Other potentially useful diagnostic information from US echoes may include modifications in tissue acoustic parameters (speed, attenuation and backscattering) resulting from disease development. Changes in acoustical parameters can be detected using time-of-flight and spectral analysis techniques. The objective of this study is to explore the potential of three parameters together (attenuation coefficient, US speed and integrated backscatter coefficient-IBC) to discriminate healthy and fibrosis subgroups in liver tissue. Echoes from 21 fresh in vitro samples of human liver and from a plane reflector were obtained using a 20-MHz central frequency transducer (6-30 MHz bandpass). The scan plane was parallel to the reflector placed beneath the liver. A 30 x 20 matrix of A-scans was obtained, with a 200-microm step. The samples were classified according to the Metavir scale in five different degrees of fibrosis. US speed, attenuation and IBC were estimated from standard methods described in the literature. Statistical tests were applied to the results of each parameter individually and indicated that it was not possible to identify all the fibrosis groups. Then a discriminant analysis was performed for the three parameters together resulting in a reasonable separation of fibrotic groups. Although the number of tissue samples is limited, this study opens the possibility of enhancing the discriminant capability of ultrasonic parameters of liver tissue disease when they are combined together.     

Prediction of concrete strength using ultrasonic pulse velocity and artificial neural networks

Ultrasonic pulse velocity technique is one of the most popular non-destructive techniques used in the assessment of concrete properties. However, it is very difficult to accurately evaluate the concrete compressive strength with this method since the ultrasonic pulse velocity values are affected by a number of factors, which do not necessarily influence the concrete compressive strength in the same way or to the same extent. This paper deals with the analysis of such factors on the velocity-strength relationship. The relationship between ultrasonic pulse velocity, static and dynamic Young’s modulus and shear modulus was also analyzed. The influence of aggregate, initial concrete temperature, type of cement, environmental temperature, and w/c ratio was determined by our own experiments. Based on the experimental results, a numerical model was established within the Matlab programming environment. The multi-layer feed-forward neural network was used for this purpose. The paper demonstrates that artificial neural networks can be successfully used in modelling the velocity-strength relationship. This model enables us to easily and reliably estimate the compressive strength of concrete by using only the ultrasonic pulse velocity value and some mix parameters of concrete.     

蔬菜表面农药残留可见-近红外光谱探测与分类识别研究

利用在600～1 100nm波段范围内可见-近红外反射光谱分析技术,对常见的高残留农药在绿色植物活体上的无损检测进行了研究。首先将采集到的漫反射光谱数据进行小波变换提取光谱特征,然后再利用主成分分析方法进一步对光谱特征进行分析,最后把这些光谱的前两个主成分得分作为神经网络的输入信息,建立了多神经元的神经网络感知器。对农药残留检测的结果表明,该方法可有效甄别农药残留和种类,识别得到较好的分类效果。总之,该研究为蔬菜和瓜果表面的农药残留快速无损检测和识别提供了一条新途径。     

New ultrasound imaging techniques with phase coherence processing

This work addresses three key subjects to the image quality with phased arrays: timing accuracy, beamforming strategy and post-processing for increased resolution and suppression of grating and side lobes.Timing accuracy is achieved by defining a modular and scalable architecture which guarantees low timing errors, whatever is the system size. The proposed beamforming methodology follows the progressive focusing correction technique, which keeps low focusing errors, provides a high information density and has a simple implementation for real-time imaging in modular architectures. Then, phase coherence imaging is defined to suppress grating and sidelobe indications, simultaneously increasing the lateral resolution.     

Improved beamforming using curved sparse 2D arrays in ultrasound

In this work we have investigated the effect of curving phase-steered sparse periodic two-dimensional arrays in one direction, and relate this effect to the geometry of the arrays. We have shown that curving is equivalent to removing some of the element periodicity, thus adding some “randomness” to the layout. Compared to flat phase-steered periodically sparse two-dimensional arrays, curving offers an even greater suppression of grating lobes located at directions along the curvature. The class of arrays yielding improved performance due to this suppression of grating lobes has been characterized.The point spread functions of some previously proposed array layouts, shown to be promising for ultrasonic imaging, have been simulated. The arrays have been simulated with various number of elements as well as various focal points, with array and field parameters typical to those in volumetric cardiac imaging. On a 48 × 48 element grid with a transducer center frequency of 3 MHz and the target at 40 mm, reductions in the peak sidelobe level of up to 12 dB were recorded for some critical steering directions, without significant differences in the beamwidth. The integrated sidelobe ratio was also examined, showing an almost equivalent performance as the flat array. This study shows that, without adding any complexity to the system, the overall image quality of a volumetric imaging system can be improved significantly by curving the array in one direction.     

XRD与SEM的钢渣尾渣物理激发机理研究

钢渣是冶金工业中产生的主要固体废弃物,其产量约为每年粗钢产量的15%~20%。由于技术的局限,导致我国钢渣利用率较低,仅为年钢渣产量的10%;同时加之管理制度的不健全,导致钢渣大量露天堆放,对土地资源、地下水源,以及空气质量造成严重影响。固体废弃物再利用是资源可持续发展的重要途径之一,由于钢渣的主要化学成分(CaO,SiO₂,A1₂O₃,MgO,Fe₂O₃,MnO,f-CaO等)、主要矿物组成(硅酸三钙、硅酸二钙、钙镁橄榄石、钙镁蔷薇辉石、铁酸二钙等)与水泥熟料的主要化学成分、主要矿物组成极为相似,是一种具有潜在胶凝活性的胶凝材料。以钢渣尾渣作为研究对象,采用机械研磨的方式对钢渣尾渣处理,即物理激发,获得不同粒径钢渣尾渣微粉。依据《用于水泥和混凝土中的钢渣粉》(GB/T 20491-2006)与《水泥胶砂强度检验方法(ISO法)》(GB/T 17671-1999)制备一系列钢渣尾渣胶砂试块(分别标记为A₄₀,A₆₀,A₈₀,A₁₀₀和A₁₂₀)。研究对钢渣尾渣胶凝活性的影响,以及不同水化时间对钢渣尾渣胶凝活性的影响,即3 d钢渣尾渣胶砂强度、7 d钢渣尾渣胶砂强度与28 d钢渣尾渣胶砂强度。利用激光粒度分析仪(LPSA)对钢渣尾渣微粉的粒径分布进行测试与分析,X射线衍射仪(XRD)对钢渣尾渣微粉与钢渣尾渣胶砂的矿物组成进行测试与分析,扫描电子显微镜(SEM)进行微观形貌测试与分析,从而获得钢渣尾渣的物理激发机理。结果表明,随着钢渣尾渣微粉粒径的减小,其胶凝活性呈现先增加后降低的趋势,当研磨时间为80 min时,A₈₀钢渣尾渣微粉的胶凝活性最高,即3 d活性指数为67.55%、7 d活性指数为71.96%和28 d活性指数为73.61%。随着钢渣尾渣微粉粒径的减小,钢渣尾渣微粉中RO相的XRD特征峰强度稳定,Ca₂SiO₄与Ca₃SiO₅的XRD特征峰强度呈现先增加后降低的趋势,Ca₃SiO₅与Ca₂SiO₄参与水化反应,生成一定量的Ca(OH)₂与C-S-H凝胶,具有良好的胶凝活性。A₈₀钢渣尾渣微粉中Ca₂SiO₄含量较少,而Ca₃SiO₅含量较多,均可以生成一定量的Ca(OH)₂与C-S-H凝胶,小幅提高A₈₀钢渣尾渣胶砂的早期(3~7 d)力学性能,大幅提高A₈₀钢渣尾渣胶砂的中、后期(7 d~28 d)力学性能。当水化时间3 d时,A₈₀钢渣尾渣胶砂中存在少量水化产物且大量分散小颗粒;当水化时间7 d时,A₈₀钢渣尾渣胶砂中水化产物大幅增加且形成较大颗粒;当水化时间28 d时,A₈₀钢渣尾渣胶砂中形成大量水化产物且几乎不存在分散小颗粒。从而进一步实现固体废弃物的资源化再利用,达到钢铁企业增加效益,环境缓解压力的目的。     

人工神经网络在超声无损检测中的应用

人工神经网络对于超声无损检测的发展具有重要的意义，本文对国内外人工神经网络在超声无损检测中应用研究做了较为详细的介绍和分析，指出人工神经网络是实现超声无损检测测定量化的有效途径。     

固体核磁共振技术在水泥基材料研究中的应用

水泥基材料组分、结构复杂,其水化过程、水化产物组成和结构表征是研究中的难点.一维固体核磁共振谱图可定性或定量分析胶凝材料（水泥及矿物掺合料）的水化程度、水化产物（特别是非晶相）的种类和结构,从而揭示胶凝材料的组成、外加剂和环境等因素对水泥基材料水化过程的影响.而二维核磁共振谱可进一步研究不同或同种原子核之间的连接情况,从而明确水化产物中的掺杂、取代,以及有机外加剂在水泥浆体中的分散情况.因此,固体核磁共振技术可获取其它方法难以获得的信息,有力促进水泥水化及其微观结构的研究.     

Application of micromechanics to the characterization of mortar by ultrasound

Mechanical properties of concrete and mortar structures can be estimated by ultrasonic non-destructive testing. When the ultrasonic velocity is known, there are standardized methods based on considering the concrete a homogeneous material. Cement composites, however, are heterogeneous and porous, and have a negative effect on the mechanical properties of structures. This work studies the impact of porosity on mechanical properties by considering concrete a multiphase material. A micromechanical model is applied in which the material is considered to consist of two phases: a solid matrix and pores. From this method, a set of expressions is obtained that relates the acoustic velocity and Young's modulus of mortar. Experimental work is based on non-destructive and destructive procedures over mortar samples whose porosity is varied. A comparison is drawn between micromechanical and standard methods, showing positive results for the method here proposed.     

Interpretation of FTIR Spectra by Principal Components–Artificial Neural Networks

In order to improve the training speed and increase the predictive ability of artificial neural networks, principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) were introduced to compress the original data. The principal components (PCs) of FTIR spectroscopic data matrix were obtained by PCA and PLS methods respectively, which were used as the inputs of neural networks. Results indicated that improvement was achieved in three aspects when the PCs instead of the original data were input to the networks. First, iterations were distinctly decreased from 8000 to less than 10. Second, computation time was shortened from 34.95 s to less than 1 s. Third, standard error of prediction (%SEP), mean relative error (MRE), and the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) decreased by 35% for the singular value decomposition–artificial neural network (SVD‐ANN) and 80% for the nonlinear iterative partial least squares–ANN (NIPALS‐ANN) or so, which means that the predictive ability was improved significantly. In addition, F‐test was introduced to compare the performance of PCA and PLS for compression of original data, and it was shown that the latter model was more efficient. The presented methodologies of variable selection provide a simple and rapid technique for ANN to interpret FTIR spectra accurately and are advantageous to the widespread use of artificial neural networks.     

Estimation of detection threshold of system latency of virtual auditory display

When a virtual auditory display (VAD) is responsive to a listener’s head movement, high precision of sound localization can be obtained. However, when the system latency (SL) is detectable to the listener, he/she feels that the virtual world is unnatural. Therefore, SL should be sufficiently smaller than the detection threshold (DT). Few researchers have examined DT and little information on the inter-subject differences has been reported. Thus, DT was investigated in more detail in this study. We conducted two kinds of experiments and examined the DT and difference limen (DL). Findings showed the estimated average DT and DL for listeners to be 45 ms and 59 ms, respectively. It was confirmed that the respective sensitivities d′ derived from each of the two experiments are strongly correlated with each other (r = 0.90 (p < .01)).     

High frequency shear ultrasonic properties of water/sorbitol solutions

Dynamic viscoelastic properties (G′ and G′′), ultrasonic shear velocity and attenuation were measured for aqueous solutions of sorbitol at 5 MHz. For pure sorbitol, the shear ultrasonic velocity reached 1470 m s⁻¹ with a density of 1500 kg m⁻³, consequently leading to a high acoustical impedance compared with “classical” polymers (polystyrene, nylon, polyethylene, Teflon, etc.). We demonstrate that this surprisingly high shear ultrasonic velocity for a viscoelastic material was due to the fact that the glass transition begins at a concentration above 85% of sorbitol in water. Hence, pure sorbitol is an ideal coupling material for high frequency shear experiments.     

一种新的线性神经网络多组分分析法及其在VC银翘片NIR定量分析中的应用

用红外光谱仪测量了VC银翘片的近红外谱图,然后将主成分分析法(PCA)和线性神经网络结合,分析VC银翘片中的对乙酰氨基酚和维生素C的含量。讨论了主成分数的选择及影响神经网络的各参数。为了比较算法的性能,作者又分别采用了偏最小二乘法、主成分分析结合BP神经网络进行数据处理。实验及数据处理结果表明,在3种多组分分析方法中,主成分分析结合线性神经网络的方法具有最高的预测精度。     

Ultrasonic sizing of short surface cracks

This paper presents a method for ultrasonic sizing of surface cracks based on time domain and frequency domain Rayleigh wave near-field analysis. The procedure allows for the entire range of ratio of crack depth to Rayleigh wavelength a/λ to be covered with one single measurement. In the time domain the time-of-flight method was extended to cracks smaller than the wavelength by correlation of the time delay of the transmitted Rayleigh wave with the crack depth. In the frequency domain, the inverse scattering problem was solved by comparison of the measured scattering coefficients and central frequencies of the reflected and transmitted Rayleigh waves with theoretical curves. The sizing procedure was demonstrated experimentally with narrow slots and real fatigue cracks. The out-of-plane displacement component was measured pointwise in the scattered near field by means of laser interferometry. The determination of the scattering parameters in the near field was enabled by a procedure that allows for the Rayleigh wave to be separated from the other modes scattered at the defect. The experimental results showed good accuracy and repeatability down to the smallest available ratio of crack depth to Rayleigh wavelength a/λ = 0.15.