Name ____________________________

Student ID No ____________________________

FINAL EXAMINATION - Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation

Tuesday January 8, 2019

(1) (20 points) A concrete containment tank for low-level nuclear liquid waste was
constructed. Soon after construction was completed, several surface-breaking
cracks appeared on the interior surface of the tank wall; the tank wall thickness
is 300 mm. All of the cracks were “repaired” by an epoxy injection treatment.
Based on previous experience, the project engineer suspects that some of the
cracks may not be completely filled with the epoxy, resulting in a significant air
gap at the bottom of the crack (see figure inset). Insufficient filling allows rapid
transport of dangerous nuclides through the wall, so it is critical to determine if
the cracks are filled properly before the tank is filled with waste. Access to both
interior and exterior wall surfaces is available.

(a) (7 pts.) Recommend an appropriate NDE technique (or combination of

techniques) to determine the quality of epoxy-injection repair of all known
cracks. Explain (justify) the selection of your approach.
(b) (7 pts.) Describe the test application and data analysis procedure.
(c) (6 pts.) List the best method to corroborate the findings of the NDE
techniques (using destructive methods if necessary), and specify how these
verifying tests are to be carried out and analyzed.

Interior
0.5mm Poorly surface
repaired
crack
epoxy
concrete
50mm wall 300 mm

air gap
10 m
 2

(2) (30 points) Consider the three thermograms (a), (b) and (c) shown on the next
page, which in each case are collected from the same bridge deck sample using
a single shot taken from an IR camera mounted on a tri-pod to the left of the
image. The only difference between the images is the time of day at which they
were collected. The deck sample contains eight delamination defects within
three families of defects, which vary by depth and/or interface condition; the
type of defect is indicated by the different colored line boxes indicated in the
images, and the defect numbers are shown in image (b).

(a) (7.5pts) Predict which image was made (i) 1 ½ hours after sunrise, (ii) at
noon and (iii) 1 ½ hours after sunset, and justify your answers.

(b) (7.5 pts) Propose how defects 1-3 (solid blue line boxes) differ from
defects 4-6 (solid red line boxes); provide a technically reasonable
justification for your answer.

(c) (7.5 pts) Propose how defects 1-3 (solid blue line boxes) differ from
defects7 and 8 (dashed blue line boxes); provide a technically reasonable
justification for your answer.

(d) (7.5 pts) Provide a plausible explanation for the image feature that is
seen along grid points B-12 to B-19.
 3

2
1
8

4 5 6 3

7
 4

(3) (10 points) Answer “True” or “False” for each of the questions listed below

(a) Impact Echo Answer

i For slab thickness measurement with impact echo, we expect

to excite the fundamental thickness stretch vibration mode.

ii For shallow delamination defect detection with impact echo,

we expect to excite the fundamental flexural vibration mode.

iii The systematic error that is associated with impact echo results
arises from the digitized nature of the impact echo signal.

iv The size and mass of the impactor do not have any effect on
the effectiveness of impact echo results.

v One drawback of impact echo is that we need access to two

opposing surfaces of the test sample.

(4) (40 points) Download a scientific paper from either Science Direct or ASCE
about subjects below

Acoustic Emission, Impact Echo, Ultrasound, GPR, Thermography in Civil

Engineering applications.

Read the paper carefully and summarize it with your own sentences. Copy-paste
sentences are not accepted. Summary should be more than 1 page.