Non-Destructive Evaluation for Sectional Loss of External Tendon of Prestressed Concrete Structures Using Total Flux Leakage

A non-destructive evaluation method is proposed to identify the sectional loss of the external tendon of prestressed concrete structures by detecting the change of the magnetic flux in the external tendon exposed to a magnetic field. The method uses a solenoid-shaped device with two coils: a primary coil for producing magnetic field and secondary coil for damage detection, wrapping the external tendon. A current applied to the primary coil in the device causes the magnetic field. Then, the change in the magnetic flux by the damage in the external tendon is detected by the variation of the voltage in the secondary coil in the device as the device moves along the tendon. An alternating current is applied to the primary coil to minimize the effect of the moving speed of the device. As a result, the damaged area can be detected with a low-level energy current. In addition, a wrapping solenoid-shaped device that is easy to disassemble and assemble was developed for in situ inspection. The measured signal from the secondary coil has a sinusoidal form with the same frequency as the applied current to the primary coil, and the peak curve of the measured signal provides enough information to detect the damage. It is shown that the proposed method can quantitatively identify one or multiple damaged-tendon locations as well as damages of at least 2 cm.