ULTRASONIC PULSE VELOCITY (UPV) METHOD

Principle:
An electro acoustical transducer held in contact with
concrete surface generates ultrasonic pulses, which
travels through concrete and converted into
electrical pulses of same frequency by second
transducer and completes an electronic timing circuit
which enables to be measure transit time of pulses.
 Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Instruments

Ultrasonic Tester

Portable Ultrasonic Non

Destructive Indicator Tester

V - Meter
 UPV Test Procedure

Direct Semi-Direct Surface or Indirect l = 300 mm

Transmission Transmission Transmission

About 150 mm

Distance Measurement
About 150 mm

Surface Preparation
Calibration of Instrument
with Standard Calibration Bar

Acoustical Coupling Application Transit Time Measurement

ULTRASONIC TEST
METHOD OF UPV TEST
SEMI-DIRECT
DIRECT

INDIRECT
Velocity Criterions for Concrete Quality Grading (IS: 13311 Part 1)

Pulse Velocity (Km/sec) Concrete Quality Grading

> 4.5 Excellent
3.5 – 4.5 Good
3.0 – 3.5 Medium
Below, 3.0 Doubtful (Further testing is required)

UPV Testing is in Progress
Example
Measured Distance = 300mm
Measured Transit Time = 68.7 -sec
Velocity = 0.3/0.0687 = 4.36 Km/sec
According to IS 13311 (Part 1)
Quality of Concrete  Good
 Purposes
 To determine homogeneity of concrete
 Detection of presence and extent of cracks, voids, Honeycombing
and other imperfections
 Changes in the concrete structure with time
 Quality of concrete in relation to standard requirement
 Determination of E &  of concrete
 Quality of one element of concrete in relation to another
 Compressive strength of concrete from appropriate correlations
and
 To know approximate depth of crack
ULTRASONIC TEST
PROCEDURE FOR UPV TEST
• Dividing the members into well defined grid points -
spacing of 200 - 300 mm preferred identical to rebound
hammer survey
• Each grid point is prepared to obtain smooth surface - a
thorough cleaning
• Application of acoustical coupling - grease, thick oil,
petroleum jelly
• Transmitting the pulses by placing the transmitter and
receiving at other end (50-54 kHz)
• Recording the transit time displayed by the instrument - a
reliable steady reading to be recorded
• Measurement of length between transmitter and receiver
• Calculation of velocity
V = L / T ( L – Path length, T-time)
GRID MARKING
GRID MARKING
BEHAVIOUR OF ULTRASONIC PULSES IN A CONCRETE
MEDIUM UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS
 CONTINUED…
BEHAVIOUR OF ULTRASONIC PULSES IN A CONCRETE
MEDIUM UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS
GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE CONDITION OF
CONCRETE BASED ON UPV VALUES

UPV value km/sec. (V) Concrete quality

Greater than 4.00 Very good

Between 3.50 and 4.00 Good, but porous
Between 3.00 and 3.50 Poor
Between 2.50 and 3.00 Very poor
Between 2.00 and 2.50 Very poor and low
integrity
Less than 2.00 No integrity, large
voids suspected
 UPV data presentation method
• Generally a large amount of data will be generated on a detailed
field survey

• Presentation assumes importance

• Preferable and convenient to print the UPV values on a drawing

showing the elevation of the member tested with UPV.

• Drawing will include details of the member, key plan of the

structure, location of the member, grid spacing, “direction of
scanning”, etc. drawing to be prepared for each member

• Alternatively the small areas covered by grid points represented

with different density dots in a graphic form - UPV ranges. Helps
to make quick identification of dense and weak locations.
 IDENTIFICATION OF CORROSION PRONE-LOCATIONS BASED ON
UPV AND HAMMER READINGS
S.No Test Results Interpretation

1 High UPV Values, High Not Corrosion Prone

Impact Hammer No.s
2 Medium range UPV values, Surface delamination,
low impact hammer low quality of surface
numbers concrete, corrosion
prone
3 Low UPV, High impact Not corrosion
hammer numbers prone,however to be
confirmed by chemical
tests, carbonation, pH
4 Low UPV values, low Corrosion prone-
impact hammer numbers Requires chemical and
electrochemical tests