METNA CO — Department of Transportation SBIR Phase I: 122FH2

Description

While thorough assessment of concrete chemistry is vital to evaluating the health of (transportation) infrastructure systems, the costly and time-consuming nature of available chemical analysis methods limit their applications. A nondestructive test method will be developed for thorough evaluation of concrete chemistry and deterioration conditions at different depths. An analytical chemistry method has been identified which provides comprehensive capabilities for accomplishing this goal. A portable system which embodies key features of this method will be devised, and data collection, signal processing/interpretation and statistical analysis methods will be developed for resolving the heterogeneous and gradient structure of concrete. A first-generation variation of the system will be developed for validating the approach within the time constraints of Phase I project. The first-generation system will be used in conjunction with the signal processing and data interpretation schemes for nondestructive field evaluation of representative transportation infrastructure systems. Comprehensive (destructive) laboratory studies, using established wet and analytical chemistry techniques, of cores extracted from the infrastructure systems will also be conducted. The results will be used to verify the potential of the proposed approach to yield an economically viable basis for expedient and thorough nondestructive field evaluation of concrete chemistry and deterioration conditions.