Researchers at the University of South Florida have invented a mobile contactless probe to analyze defects and corrosion within reinforced concrete structures.
Current electrodes used to measure corrosion of reinforced concrete structures such as bridges have many setbacks. These systems and devices are large and must be stabilized, typically via wetting the surface, causing prolonged lane closures in order for testing to happen. This process is also expensive, and therefore leads to fewer structure evaluations. There is a need for a small, portable, and fast device to measure corrosions of large structures.
USF inventors have created a novel contactless mobile device for fast corrosion assessment. It operates by measuring concrete surface potentials to identify and map corrosion in real time. This new device is user friendly and small and compact, therefore does not require any lanes to be closed for testing to occur. It does not require stabilization via wetting the surface and is much faster than traditional methods. These advantages in turn will cut labor costs and time, allowing for regular necessary structure inspections. A working prototype has shown that these results are accurate and reproducible using this technology.
This surface potential mapping technique may be mounted on vehicles for rapid measurement of large areas. The technology may be used in the construction industry to monitor aging infrastructure.
ADVANTAGES:
Fast and inexpensive
Instantaneous and highly stable measurements
High reproducibility of results
Small portable design
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