Development and validation of an ultrasound imaging software for nondestructive evaluation of concrete pavements

Desenvolvimento e validação de um software de formação de imagem de ultrassom para avaliação estrutural não-destrutiva de pavimentos de concreto

ABSTRACT:

A Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique-based ultrasound imaging software was developed and validated in this work. The software development process was discussed in detail. For validation, Jointed Plain Concrete Pavements were imaged with the evaluated software and a software assumed to yield standard images. The quality of the standard and evaluated images were analyzed and compared. The backwalls and dowels were recognizable in the standard and evaluated images. The thickness estimates obtained with each software was the same. The characteristics of objects and artifacts were explained in terms of the technology’s fundamentals and its implementations’ characteristics. The evaluated software resulted, therefore, in images of similar quality to the standard software’s images from a practical standpoint. The herein developed software was then validated for research on nondestructive evaluation of concrete pavements and can be used for testing and development of performance-improving signal and image processing techniques.

Keywords:
concrete pavements; nondestructive evaluation; ultrasound imaging