Author(s)

P. Antonaci & P. Bocca

Abstract

The present research aims to develop a new experimental approach for the estimation of the elastic characteristics of large existing structures and infrastructures. To this end, an experimental program was carried out using fibrereinforced concrete specimens. The elastic modulus of the material was evaluated through two non-destructive procedures, referred to as the \“impulse method” and \“pull-out method”, which offer several technical and economic advantages. The results achieved are seen to be in good agreement with those obtained from standard laboratory tests. Therefore, such procedures appear to be suitable for on-site material characterization and monitoring, especially if used jointly to minimize the number of tests. Keywords: elastic modulus, impulse method, pull-out method, non-destructive evaluation, material assessment. 1 Introduction The knowledge of the elastic characteristics of existing structures is of great importance within the process of safety assessment of the latter. However, the on-site evaluation of such characteristics is a complex task which, in most cases, does not yield satisfactory results. In fact, the determination of the elastic characteristics is usually made by means of preliminary laboratory tests [1], while the available on-site techniques have significant drawbacks: for example, the coring method [2] is fairly accurate but must be limited to a small number of points and, on the other hand, ultrasonic techniques [3] may be used extensively but are deeply affected by test conditions. Therefore, the need to precisely map the elastic characteristics of large structures is increasingly felt by designers and

Keywords

elastic modulus, impulse method, pull-out method, non-destructive evaluation, material assessment.