An effective and promising solution to the time-consuming process of inspecting highway structures using conventional acoustic techniques is to eliminate the need for physical contact between the sensors and a structure through the application of contactless acoustic sensors. In the study, Robotic Air-Coupled Acoustic Array for High Speed Nondestructive Evaluation [NDE] of Highway Structures, researchers at the Federal Highway Administration's Advanced Sensing Technology (FAST) NDE Laboratory used contactless acoustic receivers to develop a noncontact, air-coupled acoustic array to inspect bridge decks. This air-coupled system is mounted on a robotic platform for the high-speed inspection of bridge decks. The hardware and software parts of the device are substantially improved to reduce noise, and accurately measure the acoustic response of concrete. The device uses 40 microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones to capture stress waves, which are further analyzed to evaluate the phase velocity and impact-echo response of concrete. This air-coupled system is mounted on a robotic platform for the high-speed inspection of bridge decks.

• Infrastructure

• FY 2002-2022 / Infrastructure / Structures