Guided wave propagation for assessment of adhesive bonding between steel and concrete.

Adhesive bonding is becoming more increasingly important in joining of structural elements. In civil engineering, there is a growing interest in connection by adhesive bonding in steel-concrete flexural members. This study concerns the guided wave propagation technique applied to condition assessment of an adhesive connection between a steel member and a concrete beam. Various states of degradation were considered by producing several laboratory samples differing in the placement and the length of the adhesive bond. Piezoelectric transducers were used to excite and to register signals of propagating waves. In addition, the finite elements method was used to simulate propagation of guided waves at the bond-line between steel and concrete. Results for the beam with perfect bonding were compared with results obtained for beams with partially degraded connections. The influence of the length of damaged bond and its position on registered signals was investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]