Reduced surface wave transmission function and neural networks for crack evaluation of concrete structures

Determination of crack depth in field using the self-calibrating surface wave transmission measurement and the cutting frequency in the transmission function (TRF) is very difficult due to variations of the measurement conditions. In this study, it is proposed to use the measured full TRF as a feature for crack depth assessment. A principal component analysis (PCA) is employed to generate a basis of the measured TRFs for various crack cases. The measured TRFs are represented by their projections onto the most significant principal components. Then artificial neural network (ANN) using the PCA-compressed TRFs is applied to assess the crack in concrete. Experimental study is carried out for five different crack cases to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Results reveal that the proposed method can be effectively used for the crack depth assessment of concrete structures.