Development of muon scattering tomography for a detection of reinforcement in concrete

TL;DR

This paper advances muon scattering tomography as a non-destructive method for high-depth 3D imaging of reinforcement in concrete, capable of detecting bars as thin as 6 mm, improving structural inspection accuracy.

Contribution

The paper introduces an improved muon scattering tomography technique that exploits reinforcement periodicity, enabling detection of much thinner bars than previously possible.

Findings

Can detect reinforcement bars down to 6 mm thickness

Improved imaging of reinforcement structures in concrete

Enhanced depth penetration for structural evaluation

Abstract

Inspection of ageing, reinforced concrete structures is a world-wide challenge. Existing non-destructive evaluation techniques in civil and structural engineering have limited penetration depth and don't allow to precisely ascertain the configuration of reinforcement within large concrete objects. The big challenge for critical infrastructure (bridges, dams, dry docks, nuclear bioshields etc.) is understanding the internal condition of the concrete and steel, not just the location of the reinforcement. In most new constructions the location should be known and recorded in the as-built drawings, where these might not exist due to poor record keeping for older structures. Muon scattering tomography is a non-destructive and non-invasive technique which shows great promise for high-depth 3D concrete imaging. Previously, we have demonstrated that individual bars with a diameter of 33.7 +- 7.3 mm at 50 cm depth can be located using muon scattering tomography. Here we present an improved method that exploits the periodicity of bar structures. With this new method, reinforcement with bars down to 6 mm thickness can be detected and imaged.