Simulation study on ultrasonic tomography for grouted reinforced concrete by finite element

Abstract

A finite element reconstruction algorithm for ultrasound tomography based on the Helmholtz equation in frequency domain is presented to monitor the grouting defects in reinforced concrete structures. In this algorithm, a hybrid regularizations-based iterative Newton method is implemented to provide stable inverse solutions. Furthermore, a dual mesh scheme and an adjoint method are adopted to reduce the computation cost and improve the efficiency of reconstruction. Simultaneous reconstruction of both acoustic velocity and attenuation coefficient for a reinforced concrete model is achieved with multiple frequency data. The algorithm is evaluated with numerical simulation under various practical scenarios including varied transmission/receiving modes, different noise levels, different source/detector numbers, and different contrast levels between the heterogeneity and background region. Results obtained suggest that the algorithm is insensitive to noise, and the reconstructions are quantitatively accurate in terms of the location, size and acoustic properties of the target over a range of contrast levels.

Keywords

ultrasound computed tomography / nondestructive testing / concrete / exact field / finite element method

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