Integrated assessment of concrete structure using Bayesian theory and ultrasound tomography

Abstract Ultrasound tomography is an important nondestructive testing (NDT) technique that can be used to visualize the internal behavior of a concrete structure. Different ultrasound transmission parameters, such as travel time, wave attenuation, and wave frequency, have been implemented in both numerical and experimental applications with different accuracies. The primary aim of this study was to provide a more reliable assessment method using multiple ultrasound transmission parameters rather than a single information source. Therefore, two types of information sources, namely the travel time and wave attenuation, were integrated based on the Bayesian theory to assess the internal defects of concrete structures. The advantage was that tomography could be performed without additional measurements. Both numerical and experimental studies on concrete specimens with different assumed defects were performed to validate the proposed approach. The results demonstrated that the proposed method has better accuracy than the single information source method.