Patent Description:
The freeze-thaw resistance of concrete structures has to be examined on specimens obtained from the structures by using the methods as defined in the European Standard CEN/TS <NUM>-<NUM> which can be (A) freeze-thaw cycle exposure (B) lateral sealing and (C) capillary suction.

In case of the examinations according to conditions (A), the specimens are frozen under water or salty water after at least <NUM> days following the manufacturing of the concrete. The prescribed number of the freeze-thaw cycles is <NUM>. The condition of satisfaction is: the loss of mass should be < <NUM>% and the loss in strength should be < <NUM> %.

In examinations by lateral sealing, the prescribed number of the freeze-thaw cycles is <NUM>. The condition of acceptance is the loss of mass, wherein its amount is defined according to the environmental conditions.

The capillary suction examinations are defined in the <NUM> edition of the cited standard. In this case the examinations may only be started after at least <NUM> days have elapsed since the manufacturing date of the concrete. Based on the examinations, the following qualifications can be awarded: XF2, XF4; XF1, XF3. The codes relate to the direction of the effects of water. The condition of satisfactory results: the loss of mass should be under <NUM>/cm<NUM>.

The results of such examinations will become available only after a substantial delay counted from the concrete structure's date of manufacturing, because the examinations cannot be started earlier than <NUM> days following the manufacture, and the respective freeze-thaw cycles are time consuming. Therefore, the result will not be available before <NUM> days, but in some cases, the delay is even longer. Furthermore, the freeze-thaw cycling and its evaluation are costly and require much work.

With regard to such drawbacks, several attempts have become known to the non-destructive examination of freeze-thaw resistance, but neither of them have obtained wide acceptance or use.

According to <CIT> the concrete specimen was immersed in a liquid having a high contrast property and this medium has penetrated into the micro scratches and failures in the interior of the concrete specimen. An X-Ray recording was made from the concrete specimen soaked in this way, whereby the micro scratches can be seen and the degree of the worsening was determined based on the amount of the micro-scratches which ware also displayed. The publication does not provide a clear figure on the freeze-thaw resistance of the examined specimen.

In the article: "<NPL>, the results of expedited freeze-thaw examinations were reported which were carried out on cylindrical specimens with a diameter of <NUM> and a length of <NUM>. The examinations were carried out here by means of micro X-Ray CT devices having special micro focus, wherein the table could be moved around <NUM> axes. A special picture enhancement software was used in the measurements, and the specimens were examined in four concentric non-overlapping ring-like portions. Before the examinations, the specimens were soaked through several days in water. The examinations were directed primarily to the determination of the distribution of the pores in the specimens according to pore sizes and the changes of such distribution. The examinations were repeated after the respective freeze-thaw cycles and made graphical illustrations how the distribution of the pores size and amount have changed as a function of the number of the cycles. The article has established that throughout the cycles, the size of the pores gradually increases to a varying extent, and after the <NUM>th cycle, drastic changes were experienced in the specimens. Based on the data that can be found in the article, one cannot draw any conclusion according to which any correlation would exist between the freeze-thaw resistance and the initial volume of pores, moreover the data supports just the opposite of the existence of such a correlation.

The task of the invention is to provide a non-destructive determination method for the freeze-thaw resistance of the examined concrete specimens, which provides reliable results faster and in a simpler way than what is defined in the mentioned standard.

The attribute "faster" does not only mean the sparing of the high number of freeze-thaw cycles, but also refers to the fact that the examinations can start before the full setting of the concrete that requires <NUM> days.

For solving this task, we have started from the fact that there were several publications in which medical computer tomography (CT) was used instead of micro CT equipment for the examination of stones, asphalts and even of concrete. The advantage of using medical CTs lies in their wide range of use and availability, furthermore the circumstance that the examinations do not limit the size of the specimens and such specimens can have a diameter greater than <NUM> or can have a rectangular or oblong shape or even a square-shaped cross-sectional profile, whereas the properties of such larger specimens can better represent the structure of the concrete to be examined.

Moreover, medical CTs are appropriate for the examination of bones, which have a Hunsfield coefficient close to that of concrete.

In medical CT equipments, the specimen is stationary, and the X-ray source and the detectors are rotating around the specimen which is just the opposite of the arrangements of micro-CT material examinations in which the specimen is rotated, and the X-ray source and the detectors are stationary. The information provided by the detectors is however disturbed by a number of things, and for the elimination or the decrease of such disturbing effects, several mathematical solutions have become available.

A method for improving the picture quality of CT images has been published in the article of <NPL>) concerning the elimination or minimizing the problems coming from the hardening of the rays and from other noises as well as concerning the separation of zones with differing X-ray attenuations in the different materials. Here, Fourier transformation was carried out to enter the frequency domain, wherein a special second order Butterworth low pass filter was used to screen the high frequency components, and by means of a fast inverse Fourier transformation, a returning to the real domain was reached. The results thus obtained made the components of the specimens with differing attenuation suitable to be processed separately and to be displayed in a distinguishable way. The authors have elaborated this method for the examination of specimens made from asphalt and concrete, and this method is appropriate to display air voids present in the specimen and to determine the total volume of the air voids, namely the pores.

For the examination of the pores present in asphalt and concrete, not only the previously referred picture enhancing method is known, but there are numerous other solutions which are included in the article by <NPL>) and also listed among the references of the article. The article describes that the correct nature of the results obtained by the CT examinations were verified by conventional measurements, and the knowledge of the internal structure of asphalt can have a substantial role in checking and improving its quality.

<NPL> discloses the investigation of the pore distribution of concrete samples using a medical grade computed tomographic inspection apparatus with subsequent 3D pore volume calculation of the reconstructed images in order to ascertain the damage to the samples after <NUM> freeze-thaw cycles.

For solving the task, it has been recognized that the freeze-thaw resistance depends basically on the full volume of the air voids (pores) in the concrete, and good results can be obtained if the examinations are carried out under real conditions, i.e. the specimens with scratches or having too many pores are left out of the examinations and the air voids in the aggregates are left out from the calculations. Such examinations can be carried out in the most convenient way by means of medical CT equipments following a high-quality picture correction.

A further essential recognition has been that the pore structure is formed already by the end of the sixth day following the manufacture of the concrete structure (and of the specimen), and even if it changes, such change will be negligibly low and act in the direction of the decrease of the pore volume, therefore the examinations can already be carried out on the <NUM>th or <NUM>th day after manufacture. This represents a substantial gain in time compared to any known freeze-thaw examination methods.

For solving the task, a method has been provided for the examination of the freeze-thaw resistance of concrete structures, comprising the steps as defined in the attached claims.

The invention will now be described in connection with preferred embodiments thereof in which reference will be made to the accompanying drawings. In the drawing:.

Reference is made now to <FIG> in which the functional layout of the arrangement has been shown which is used for the examination of the specimens. A medical computer tomograph <NUM> (CT) has a stationary part <NUM> which has a ring-like opening. A movable object table <NUM> is provided that can be moved in axial direction across the ring like opening, onto which one or more specimens <NUM> can be placed. In the present case, the specimen <NUM> has been prepared in the same way as the concrete to be examined and it has an oblong-shaped body having the same properties as the concrete under examination and it has a size preferably <NUM> x <NUM> x <NUM>. It is preferred if the specimen <NUM> does not comprise more than 5V% component with a density over <NUM>/cm<NUM>.

When the specimen <NUM> is placed onto the object table <NUM> and the medical CT <NUM> is set to operation, an X-ray generator arranged in the interior of the stationary part <NUM> and detectors arranged opposite thereto will rotate with high speed, and during each full revolution the detectors sense the radiation passed trough at a given slice of the specimen <NUM> which has been passed through the specimen <NUM> and have become attenuated thereby, and a corresponding set of measured data become recorded. During the movement of the specimen, this process is repeated and as a result a segmented set of signals is generated which is recessed by the medical CT <NUM> and as a result in each slice or segment of the specimen respective sectional pictures are obtained, which are visualized in <FIG> by the set of pictures <NUM> positioned under each other.

In view of the fact that the pictures <NUM> correspond to respective subsequent discrete cross sections of the specimen <NUM>, when the pictures are positioned on the top of each other, a virtual reconstruction <NUM> of the specimen <NUM> will be available. In case these pictures <NUM> are appropriately screened, corrected and processed, then we will obtain the reconstructed inner structure <NUM> of the respective cross sections of the specimen <NUM>, in which the components constituting the specimen <NUM> will separately appear according to their respective densities and can be separately examined. By means of an appropriate electronic screening, one can provide the spatial model <NUM> of the respective components like aggregates, steel-reinforcements, cement and air voids present in the specimen <NUM> which is illustrated in <FIG> by a symbolic brick shape, but by means of a computer a diagram <NUM> can also be prepared showing the respective components with differing densities, wherein the respective columns can show the relative volume of the concerned components.

The processing and analysis of the respective cross-sectional pictures can be carried out by algorithms made in a digital environment, which use previously set parameters to segment the aggregates, binders, gaps and pores by thresholding. The mentioned digital environment can be preferably Matlab, but it can be substituted by any other appropriate mathematical algorithm program. Such a digital thresholding algorithm can be the previously mentioned double Fourier transformation.

From the improved quality cross sectional pictures, percentual volume statistics are provided from slice to slice. The respective volume statistics of the slices can be united in a statistic which is characteristic to the specimen that contains sufficient amount and quality data concerning the internal structure of the examined concrete specimen.

The determination of the full porosity value can take place in a separate way or within a general algorithm which carries out the tasks of thresholding one by one, the calculation of the respective percentual volumes, and their summing up.

For the examination of the freeze-thaw resistance only selected specimens are appropriate. It is known that concrete comprises a predetermined amount of aggregates that comprise at least in part gravel or crushed stone. These aggregates can also contain air voids which are detected by the examination, whereas such air voids are entirely encircled by the stone material and water cannot penetrate into them, and in this way the mechanical expansion during freezing cannot have any destroying effect. <FIG> show a reconstructed picture of a cross section of the specimen in which the grey shade of the aggregate is darker, and any air void or pore therein has a differing shade. <FIG> is the enlarged picture of a detail that comprises such an air void from which one can see that the air void is surrounded in every direction by the material of the stone, whereby water that might penetrate into the interior of the specimen cannot reach such air voids.

When determining the total pore volume in the specimen <NUM>, the summed volume of such air voids in the aggregates must be deducted. Naturally, if in any given specimen the aggregates do not comprise such air voids or their total volume is negligibly low, then this deduction step can be omitted.

A further condition for the examination of freeze-thaw resistance only such specimens <NUM> can be used in which the total pore volume is under a threshold level, because in case of largely porous concretes one cannot interpret freeze-thaw resistance at all, since water can easily penetrate into the pores, and following the subsequent freeze-thaw cycles, the concrete gets destroyed. Such concretes should be excluded for the examinations. A condition of such an exclusion lies in that the total pore volume is above <NUM>% compared to the full volume.

A third condition of excluding a specimen from the examinations is that it cannot comprise cracks in which the penetrating water can cause serious damages when being frozen. <FIG> is the cross-sectional picture of a specimen that includes cracks in which the crack is not as visible as <FIG> made from the same slice wherein during picture processing parts containing air are shown as black spots. This cross-sectional view clearly indicates the existence of cracks. The longitudinal size of the cracks can be obtained by the analysis of subsequent adjacent slices and the spatial interpolation of the void parts, which can be done by appropriate available software.

A further condition of excluding a specimen from the examination lies in when it comprises more components (i.e. steel) with a density above <NUM>/cm<NUM> which are above an upper limit being e.g. <NUM> V%.

Before the freeze-thaw resistance examinations of a specimen <NUM>, the data obtained by the medical CT examinations should be screened by mathematical methods e.g. by fast Fourier transformation, then by a Butterworth filtering the by inverse Fourier transformation, then it should be decided from slice to slice whether the specimen comprises cracks that exclude the use thereof, and if such are not found, the volume of the air voids present in the aggregates should be determined and deducted from the full pore volume, and it should be established whether it is in the accepted range. If this is under the threshold, then based on the so determined total pore volume, the freeze-thaw resistance can be established.

The basis of the present invention was the assumption that if from the specimens of the concrete to be examined the non-useable specimens are excluded, and the pore volume is corrected by the deduction of the volume of the air voids in the aggregates, then, based on the percentual volume of the pores, the freeze-thaw resistance can be established.

For confirming this assumption, a high number of examinations were carried out, wherein from the same concrete material the percentual pore volumes were measured by the referred examinations by means of medical CT devices, and separate examinations were carried out following the European standard CRN/TS <NUM>-<NUM> by capillary suction, and the results obtained were compared with each other. Based on this comparison, a high degree of correlation was obtained on the basis of which it can be established that the freeze-thaw resistance can be determined on the basis of the full pore volume of the specimen.

The results obtained are reported based on <FIG>. In case the pore volume in the specimen is above <NUM> V%, there can be no freeze-thaw resistance and the concrete does not satisfy the conditions set in the standard. <FIG> shows a cross sectional picture of a sample with <NUM>. 5V% pore volume, and <FIG> is an enlarged detail of the same picture. The specimen comprises comparatively many pores into which water can penetrate and when getting frozen, its volume expansion at freezing will increase the available pore volume, and during the subsequent freeze-thaw cycles a gradual worsening takes place and thus the mechanical strength and loadability of the concrete worsens. In the pore volume range <NUM> V%- <NUM> V% the specimen does not have freeze-thaw resistance.

<FIG> show the cross-sectional pictures of a specimen with <NUM> V% pore volume and an enlarged detail thereof. In case the pore volume determined by the CT examination is between <NUM> V% and <NUM> V%, then the concrete is moderately freeze-thaw resistant and the standard qualification XF1 and XF2 can be applied.

Freeze-thaw resistance is present in case of concretes with pore volume under <NUM> V%. <FIG> show the cross-sectional pictures of a specimen with <NUM> V% pore volume and an enlarged detail thereof. It should be noted that, as explained earlier, the air voids that can be observed in the aggregate are not taken into account when the pore volume is determined.

Similar pore volume examinations were made by the previously described CT technique after the specimens were kept under water through a few days under a pressure of <NUM> bars. Because the Hunsfield coefficient of water substantially differs from the coefficients of concrete and of the aggregates, pores filled with water can be separated in the corrected sectional pictures the same way as in case of air, as the measured pore volume did not differ in a remarkable way from the results obtained in dry conditions.

It has also been examined whether the pore volume of a specimen changes if the examination is carried out on the <NUM>th day following manufacture and not on or after the <NUM>th day. It has been experienced that the results do not change with time, or the pore volume determined in the <NUM>th day is slightly lower (by less than 1V%) than the values obtained on the <NUM>th day. Therefore if a specimen proves to be freeze-thaw resistance by an examination taken on the <NUM>th day, it will only be better on the <NUM>th day, therefore the examinations can be carried out from the <NUM>th day onwards.

The examination method can be complemented by a further step in which from the sectional views a 3D model is created by means of known computer-based picture and model creating programs. The so obtained structural model can provide a basis for carrying out further diagnostic examinations including the examination of the spatial distance-coefficient obtained from the distance between the pores, and other important examinations.

The method according to the invention has really solved the task of the invention because the freeze-thaw resistance can be obtained in a reliable way already on the <NUM>th or <NUM>th day. In addition to the quick nature, further advantages come from the simplicity and smaller costs of the suggested method. The use of a medical CT device is a substantial advantage, as such devices are available in many places and they allow the examination of larger specimens.

Claim 1:
Method for the examination of the freeze-thaw resistance of concrete structures, comprising the steps of preparing one or more specimens (<NUM>) of a predetermined size from the concrete structure when it is made that represents the concrete structure, examining the inner structure of the specimen by computer tomography (<NUM>) and determining the relative amount of a predetermined component in the specimen following picture enhancement and picture correction carried out by a computer, characterized in that said examination is carried out after six days have elapsed following the preparation of the specimen (<NUM>), then checking whether the specimen is appropriate for the examination of freeze-thaw resistance qualifying as inappropriate for examination in case the total pore volume therein is above <NUM> V%, or where it comprises cracks, or if the amount of the components therein that have a density over <NUM>/cm<NUM> exceeds <NUM> V%, and in case if it is found that the specimen (<NUM>) is suitable for such an examination, determining the percentual volume of the pores in the portion of the specimen not counting the pores in the aggregate components, and in case the percentual volume of the pores is above <NUM> V%, the specimen is qualified as having no freeze-thaw resistance, if this value is between <NUM> V% and <NUM> V%, the specimen is qualified as moderately freeze-thaw resistant, and if this value is under <NUM> V%, the specimen is qualified as freeze-thaw resistant.