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Application of time-reversal guided

waves to field bridge testing for
baseline-free damage diagnosis

Kim, S., Sohn, H.

S. B. Kim, H. Sohn, "Application of time-reversal guided waves to field bridge

testing for baseline-free damage diagnosis," Proc. SPIE 6177, Health
Monitoring and Smart Nondestructive Evaluation of Structural and Biological
Systems V, 617706 (28 March 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.659728

Event: Nondestructive Evaluation for Health Monitoring and Diagnostics,

2006, San Diego, CA, United States

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 Application of Time-Reversal Guided Waves to Field Bridge Testing
for Baseline-Free Damage Diagnosis
S. B. Kim*, H. Sohn
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

ABSTRACT

There is ongoing research at Carnegie Mellon University to develop a “baseline-free” nondestructive evaluation
technique. The uniqueness of this baseline-free diagnosis lies in that certain types of damage can be identified without
direct comparison of test signals with previously stored baseline signals. By relaxing dependency on the past baseline
data, false positive indications of damage, which might take place due to varying operational and environmental
conditions of in-service structures, can be minimized. This baseline-free diagnosis technique is developed based on the
concept of a time reversal process (TRP). According to the TRP, an input signal at an original excitation location can be
reconstructed if a response signal obtained from another point is emitted back to the original point after being reversed in
a time domain. Damage diagnosis lies in the premise that the time reversibility breaks down when a certain type of
defect such as nonlinear damage exists along the wave propagation path. Then, the defect can be sensed by examining a
reconstructed signal after the TRP. In this paper, the feasibility of the proposed NDT technique is investigated using
actual test data obtained from the Buffalo Creek Bridge in Pennsylvania.

Keywords: Baseline-free, Time reversal process, Lamb waves, Damage detection, NDT, In-service structures.

1. INTRODUCTION

Recently, much attention has been paid to structural health monitoring (SHM) and nondestructive evaluation testing
(NDT) to ensure structural integrity of civil infrastructure system and to provide early warning of defects in critical
structural components. Although many SHM/NDT techniques are successfully applied to scaled models or specimens
tested in controlled laboratory environments, the performance of these techniques in real operational environments that
bridge structures are subjected to is still questionable and needs to be validated. In particular, varying environmental and
operational conditions produce changes in the system’s dynamic response that can be easily mistaken for damage. The
research community has not fully addressed this issue of varying environmental and operational conditions although it is
critical to develop a monitoring system with minimal false-positive and false-negative indications of damage in field
applications.

To tackle this issue, a concept of time reversal acoustic [1] has been applied to SHM/NDT problems [2, 3]. Based on the
TRP, an input signal exerted to an original excitation point can be reconstructed if a response signal measured from
another point is reemitted to the original point after being reversed in a time domain. Damage diagnosis using the TRP is
based on the premise that the time reversibility breaks down when a defect such as nonlinear damage exists along the
wave propagation path. Therefore, using the TRP, certain types of damage can be identified without direct comparison of
test signals with previously stored baseline signals.

In this study, the applicability of the TRP to SHM/NDT applications is theoretically and experimentally investigated.
First, the basic concept of time reversal is introduced and extended to Lamb wave propagation. Then, implementation
issues related to the application of the proposed NDT technique to field testing are presented. Finally, the experimental
data from a real bridge in PA is presented.

*
Contact author: seungbuk@andrew.cmu.edu; 412-268-8313; Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213.

Health Monitoring and Smart Nondestructive Evaluation of Structural and Biological Systems V, edited by
Tribikram Kundu, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6177, 617706, (2006) · 0277-786X/06/$15 · doi: 10.1117/12.659728

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6177 617706-1

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 2. THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT

2.1 Time Reversal Acoustics for Body Waves

Body waves are elastic waves that travel through a medium with infinite boundary conditions rather than along an
interface. Body waves can be further divided into pressure waves and shear waves. According to time reversal acoustics,
an input body wave can be refocused at the source location if a response signal measured at a distinct location is time-
reversed (literally the time point at the end of the response signal becomes the starting time point) and reemitted to the
original excitation location. An example of time reversal acoustics can also be found in our everyday life: If you would
scream “Hello” at the summit of a mountain toward the other side of the mountain, the sound would hit the wall and
bounce back at you. Then, you would hear “Hello” echoes. This phenomenon is referred to as time reversibility of body
waves and has found applications in lithotripsy, ultrasonic brain surgery, NDT, and acoustic communications [1].

2.2 Extension of Time Reversal to Lamb Waves

The TRP has been widely applied to body waves due to the non-dispersive nature of body waves. However, its
application to Lamb waves becomes complicated because of the dispersive and multimode characteristic of Lamb waves
[4]. Several researchers have applied the TRP to Lamb waves propagation [5, 6] mainly to refocus the energy of the
signal. In this study, the concept of the TRP has been extended to achieve the full reconstruction of the input signal. An
outline of the extended TRP is presented in Figure 1. Note that conventional lead zirconate titanate (PZT) materials are
employed for generation and sensing of Lamb waves. First, one PZT patch is designated as an actuator (PZT A), exerting
a narrowband tone-burst signal into the structure [Figure 1 (a)]. Then, the other PZT (PZT B) becomes a sensor and
measures a response signal [Figure 1 (b)]. Once the response signal is obtained, the measured signal is reversed in a time
domain and reemitted from PZT B to PZT A [Figure 1 (c)]. Finally, when the response of the time reversed signal is
measured at PZT A, the energy of the reemitted signal converges in this reconstructed signal [Figure 1 (d)]. The main
difference between the TRP for body waves and for Lamb waves is that a narrowband tone-burst input signal is
employed in the later case to minimize dispersion [7]. However, the TRP in Lamb wave propagation still remain
complicated due to the effects of multimodes and reflections. These issues are investigated in Section 3.
9 iubn ataus, p I62bOU26 2 !äuSI
Jc

>0
Jc I6I6Cl1OI Je
03 0 o 03 02
1!WG we 1!WG

EOLMSL(
COWb9LG( bJ bJ IB J!W b6A6Ueq
B9CI(MS Lq

q 62OL6q 2!äusi C 66w!6q !äusI

S
I6I6Cl1OI

V >0

Figure 1: A schematic outline of the TRP applied to a plate structure

2.3 Definition of Indices for Damage Diagnosis

The next step is to utilize the aforementioned TRP to develop a baseline-free damage diagnosis methodology. Our
personal communications with field engineers at local PennDOT branches indicated that majority of cracks in steel
bridges are observed near the connection between a stiffeners and a steel girder web. As part of efforts to detect crack
near these connections, the following Symmetry Index (SYMI) is proposed:

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 tm tm t0

∫ {R(t ) L(−t )} ∫ R (t )dt ∫ L (t )dt

2
SYMI = 1 − dt 2 2
(1)
t0 t0 − tm

where R(t) and L(t) are the right and left sides of the reconstructed signal, respectively. t0 and tm are the starting and
ending times of the referencing range of the SYMI. The definition of each term in Eq. (1) is shown in Figure 2 as well.
The SYMI is defined to determine the symmetry of the reconstructed signal after the TRP. It can be shown that when a
symmetric input signal is applied, the reconstructed signal should be also symmetric. However, the presence of
nonlinear damage is expected to break down the symmetric of the reconstructed signal. The SYMI is used for the
damage diagnosis study presented in Section 5.

1
Scalied Amplitude
L(t) R(t)
0.5
Main Peak

0
S0/A0
-0.5

-tm t0 tm
-1
-0.06 -0.04 -0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06
Time (ms)

Figure 2: Definition of L(t), R(t), -tm, and tm

3. IMPLENTATION ISSUES RELATED TO FIELD TESTING

3.1 Effects of Multimodes and Reflection on Time Reversal

The effect of the multimode characteristic is further investigated in Figure 3 (a). When a tone-burst signal is exerted to
PZT A [Figure 3 (a-1)], multimodes are generated at PZT B [Figure 3 (a-2)]. In this study, the input frequency range is
selected so that only the first symmetric (S0) and anti-symmetric (A0) modes are generated. When the response signal is
reversed in a time domain and reemitted to PZT B [Figure 3 (a-3)], each of A0 or S0 modes creates both S0 and A0 modes
resulting in a total of four modes in the reconstructed signal [Figure 3 (a-4) and (a-5)]. In Figure 3 (a), S0/A0 denotes S0
mode measured at PZT A due to the A0 mode input at PZT B. A0/S0, S0/S0, and A0/A0 are similarly defined. After
superposition of Figure 3 (a-4) and (a-5), the reconstructed signal consists of the main peak at the middle and two
sidebands around the main peak [Figure 3 (a-6)]. Note that the main peak in the middle is the superposition of A0/A0 and
S0/S0 modes and “symmetric” side bands are produced as a result of A0 and S0 mode coupling. There will be additional
sidebands if more modes are generated during wave propagations. Finally, the shape of the main peak will be practically
identical to that of the original input signal [1].

The actual implementation of the TRP is further complicated due to reflection when Lamb waves propagate along a
finite medium. The effect of reflections from boundaries on the TRP is illustrated in Figure 3 (b). Assuming that a single
mode wave is generated at PZT A and travels to PZT B [Figure 3 (b-1)], the wave will take two different paths to arrive
at PZT B [Figure 3 (b-2)]. In Figure 3 (b), P1 and P2 denote modes produced along direct and reflection paths in a
forward propagation direction. P3 and P4 are defined in a similar fashion. When the mode due to the reflection, P2, is
emitted back to PZT A [Figure 3 (b-3)], this wave generates two response modes, P3/P2 and P4/P2, in the reconstructed
signal due to the two different wave propagation paths [Figure 3 (b-4)]. Similarly, when P1 is reemitted, it creates
additional two modes, P3/P1 and P4/P1 [Figure 3 (b-5)]. Finally, the reconstructed signal is composed of the main peak
in the middle, which is the superposition of P3/P1 and P4/P2, and two symmetric sidebands due to P3/P2 and P4/P1
[Figure 3 (b-6)]. Note that the symmetry of the reconstructed signal is irrelevant to the symmetry of neither the structure
nor the boundary condition. In the example presented in Figure 3 (b), there is only one finite boundary where waves can
be reflected, but the reconstructed signal is still symmetric. The number of sidebands will increase if there are additional
wave reflections.

Ultimately, the reconstructed signal will have multiple peaks due to multimode and reflections. Note that S0 modes
traveling along the direct path in both directions (P3/P1) and along the indirect (reflection) path in both directions

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 (P4/P2) converge with A0 modes propagating through the same paths, creating the main peak in the reconstructed signal.
Then, several sidebands are produced due to the interaction of A0 and S0 modes and the coupling of the direct and
reflection paths. The existence of these sidebands is one of the unique characteristics of the time reversal in Lamb wave
propagation that have not been observed in body waves.

rorwara rropagaiion

ragatlon 1

4
osoi
(1) Input ignaI at PZT A (1) Input ignI at PZT A _________
(Auning a ingIe mode)
(2) Repone at PZT B (2) Repone at PZT B
P1 P
due to input at PZT A due to input at PZT A
(3) Time reversed ignl (3) Time Reversed ignl

iso
at PZT B at PZT B
(4) Repone at PZT A due (4) Repone at PZT A
to A0 mode input at PZT B due to P2 input at PZT B
(5) Repone at PZT A due (5) Repone at PZT A ________________________
to S0 mode input at PZT B due to P1 input at PZT B
sos0 AdSO

(6) Total repone at PZT A (6) Total repone at PZT A _____________________

(Repone (4) • (5)) (Repone (4) • (5)) 2*P4IP1
P41P2.P3IPI
S0/S0.A0/A0

(a) The effect of multimodes on the TRP (b) The effect of reflections on the TRP
Figure 3: The effects of multimodes and reflections are shown here. The multimodes and reflection produce sidebands such as
S0/A0, A0/S0, P3/P2, and P4/P1.
Note: (1) S0/A0 denotes S0 mode produced at PZT A due to A0 mode input at PZT B. A0/S0, S0/S0, and A0/A0 are similarly defined.
(2) P1 and P3 are waves propagating along the direct path between PZTs A and B, and P2 and P4 are waves reflected at one
end of the plate in forward and backward directions. P3/P2 denotes a signal arrived at PZT A through a direct path, when
the reflected signal, P2, is emitted back to PZT B after the TRP. P4/P2, P3/P1, and P4/P1 are similarly defined.

Paths 2&3 S0/A0 A0/S0 Paths 1&4

S0 and A0 Lamb waves
(S0/S0 and A0/A0) in Fig.4
through the direct and
TD TD reflected waves (paths 1&3
and paths 2&4) in Fig.5 will
TR converge to this main peak
Symmetry TR
Figure 4: A typical reconstructed signal obtained from a steel girder specimen. The time reversibility and symmetry of the
reconstructed input signal are expected to be preserved through the TRP even in the presence of multimode lamb waves. These
characteristics will be used to extract damage sensitive features. See Figure 3 (a) and Figure 3 (b) for descriptions of S0/S0, A0/A0,
paths 1&4, and paths 2&3.

3.2 Effects of PZT Transducers Size and Bonding Condition on the TRP
As mentioned previously, the SYMI is used to detect crack defects. However, it has been observed that the size and
bonding conditions of the PZTs can also change the SYMI value: For the TRP described in Figure 1, it is assumed the
sizes of the two PZTs are identical. However, if the two PZT transducers had different sizes, the reconstructed signal
would experience a phase shift compared to the original input signal [9]. As the reconstructed signal is shifted, the SYMI
value increases even without the presence of damage. A similar phase shift is also observed when the PZTs used for the
TRP have different bonding conditions [9]. It is speculated that variation of the PZT bonding condition results in changes
in the effective PZT size. Therefore, PZTs with identical sizes should be used, and attentions should be paid to control
the bonding condition.

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 4. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

A field test was conducted at the Buffalo Creek Bridge in Armstrong County, PA with permission from District 10 office
of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The buffalo Creek Bridge carries 4-lane traffic, and it is composed of
a concrete deck and 12 main steel girders. A photo of the Buffalo Creek Bridge and the location of the steel girder tested
are shown in Figure 5.

The proposed baseline-free NDT technique is applied to one of the steel girders near the north end of the bridge supports
[Figure 6]. The girder tested is one of the interior girders (the third one from the north-east exterior girder), and its
dimension is 1.83 m height and 0.0111 m thick. In every 1.6375 m, 8mm-thick stiffeners are welded on the alternative
sides of the web [Figure 5 (a)].
• — • — • —t— • — —
—I I I I

$iffeners
At
I I I

I I
_t(•
Teat Iocat(on '—. Support
t.
I
' ________ r (North)
-

Girders1 I I I
0
— f. F
View from this side: Figure 5 (b) cZ
(a) Detailed drawing of the test location (b) Overview of the Buffalo Creek Bridge
Figure 5: The overview and the description of the Buffalo Creek Bridge in Pennsylvania

(a) Overall PZT sensor setup. (b) A data acquisition system placed at the bridge support
Figure 6: Overall test setup configuration for Buffalo Creek Bridge testing

Figure 7: A scaled model of a steel bridge girder used for laboratory testing
(thickness of web and stiffener: 3 mm, size of the PZTs: 1 cm × 1 cm, exciting frequency: 150 kHz )

A similar experiment is also conducted using a scaled steel girder specimen in a controlled laboratory environment
[Figure 7]. In fact, the specimen test was performed to determine design parameters such as the driving frequency and
PZT size before the field testing of the Buffalo Creek Bridge. The thickness of a web and stiffeners is 3 mm, and 1

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 cm × 1 cm rectangular PZTs are mounted on the web. The exciting frequency of the PZTs is set to 150 kHz based on the
thickness of the girder. Benchmark comparison between the laboratory and field tests is presented in Section 5.

A total of five PZT transducer pairs are mounted on the tested steel girder. These five pairs are listed as Paths 1 to 5 in
Figure 6 (a). In this test, the piezoelectricity of PZTs allows them to function as both actuators and sensors [10]. The
distance between each pair of the PZTs is set to 1 m. In this experiment, a PSI-5A4E type of PZT (thickness = 0.0508
cm) is cut to a square shape (2.5 cm × 2.5 cm) and attached on the surface of the steel girder’s web with a commercial
cyanoacrylate adhesives. The data acquisition system consists of an arbitrary signal generator (AWG), a high-speed
signal digitizer (DIG), a low noise preamplifier (LNP), and an external power source. In order to control the data
acquisition system remotely using a laptop computer, a USB wireless modem protocol (Linksys WUSB54G) is installed
in the system [Figure 6 (b)].

A tone-burst signal with 20 peak-to-peak voltage is generated using 14-bit AWG, and the PZTs are excited at the
frequency of 100 kHz. First, PZT A in Figure 6 (a) is excited by this input waveform. Then, PZT A generates elastic
waves, and the response is measured at PZT B. When the guided waves arrive at PZT B, the voltage output from PZT B
is amplified by LNP with a gain of 20 and measured by 16-bit DIG. The sampling rate of DIG is 5 MS/sec, and
resolution is ± 0.2 V. Once the response signal is recorded, the signal is reversed in a time domain and saved. The
reversed signal is applied to PZT B, and the response is measured at PZT A. Finally, from the reconstructed signal
acquired at PZT A, the SYMI of the signal is evaluated. Damage diagnosis using the SYMI is discussed in the following
section.

5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

5.1 Removing Vibration Induced by Traffic Loading

Due to normal traffic on the Buffalo Creek Bridge, the vibration response of the bridge was dominated by traffic loading
and it was difficult to extract Lamb wave responses produced by the PZT excitation. For instance, Figure 8 (a) shows a
typical vibration response obtained from a pair of PZTs [Path 2 in Figure 9] when normal traffic was on the bridge. Note
that the signal was saturated because the vibration response induced by traffic loading exceeded the dynamic range of
DIG ( ± 0.2 V). In order to extract the guided wave response of our interest, several filtering options were investigated.
First, an analog filter built in LNP was used. This analog filter has adjustable cutoff frequency values, and the range of
the band-limited filter is set to 10 to 300 kHz. It did not fully remove the dynamic response due to traffic loading. Next,
the same test was repeated only using a digital filter built in LabVIEW software (a 5th order Butterworth filter with
cutoff frequencies of 30 kHz to 300 kHz) [11]. As expected, the digital filter itself did not improve the response signal
because the signal was already saturated even before applying the digital filter. Finally, when both analog and digital
filters were applied to the response signal, the Lamb wave response was successfully extracted as shown in Figure 8 (b).
Finally, to improve the signal to noise ratio, the same input waveform was repeatedly applied 5 times, and the
corresponding responses were averaged in the time domain.
Without any filtering Analog and digital filtering applied
0.4 0.3

0.2 oowGq 0.1

0.2
0.1
Voltage (V)

Voltage (V)

0.05
Voltage (V)

0 0 0

-0.05
-0.1
-0.2 -0.1
9JflL9t -0.2 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Time (Sec)
1.8
x 10
2
-3

-0.4
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
Time (sec) Time (Sec)
(a) Without any filtering (b) With both analog and digital filtering
Figure 8: Removal of the dynamic vibration response induced by traffic loading using analog and digital filtering

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 Stiffener

Tm
E

Note: The eizes of eli

PZTs elm identicel
Path4

Path 5 • •
-a€2om

—
•
_ Path 2
Path 1

F
—
E
m

. ___________
1.138m 1.000ni 1.138ni
1 1

i_
3.275m

Figure 9: Dimension of a girder, sensor array setup, and the notation of each test case

5.2 Grounding of PZT Patches

The effect of the PZT grounding condition on Lamb wave propagation is investigated by examining response signals
obtained from three different PZT pairs: Paths 1 to 3 in Figure 9. For Path 1 case, PZTs were simply mounted on the
painted surface of the steel girder without any special treatment. PZTs were mounted in the exactly same fashion in Path
2 case except that the steel girder is properly grounded to provide a common-mode ground for both PZTs. In Path 3 case,
the painting layer was removed before PZT attachment and the steel girder is grounded. Figure 10 (a) shows that,
without proper grounding, the subtle Lamb wave responses are masked by much larger electro-mechanical interference
(EMI). With proper grounding in Path 2 case, the EMI is reduced as shown in Figure 10 (b). Finally, the EMI is
completely removed in Path 3 case shown in Figure 10 (c). Note that the fluctuation of the signal in Path 3 case is mainly
caused by the dynamic vibrations induced by traffic loading. However, removing the painting layers is labor intensive,
and the spot can be vulnerable to corrosion. Instead, a digital filter previously described was used to remove both EMI
and traffic-induced vibrations for Path 2, 4 and 5 cases.

0.15

EMI
0.1

0.05

0
> -0.05

-0.15 * Same as Path 1 case except

for proper grounding
0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
Ti,ee (See) Time (sec) Ti,e (eec)

(a) Path 1 (b) Path 2 (c) Path 3

Figure 10: Measured signals from sensor pairs with different bonding conditions
(Analog filtering only, Definition of Path 1 to 3 are shown in Figure 9)

5.3 Lamb Wave Propagation and the TRP in a Steel Girder structure
In this section, Lamb wave propagation and the TRP in a steel girder is investigated. First, the experimentally measured
group velocity of each Lamb wave modes is compared with theoretical calculation. The measured arrival times of each
Lamb wave mode in the forwarding signal are consistent with the theoretical expectations ( VS0 = 4.825 m/ms and tS0 = 1
m / 4,825 m/ms = 0.207 ms; VA0 = 3.125 m/ms and t A0 = 1 m / 3.125 m/ms = 0.320 ms) [Figure 11 (a)]. In addition, Figure

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 11 (a) indicates that there is an additional mode between the S0 and A0 modes. It is speculated that this additional mode
is a result of S0 and A0 mode conversion at a defect on the web or produced by reflections from the stiffener. However, it
is not conclusive at this point whether this additional mode is a result of mode conversion at the defect or reflections
from the stiffener. Further inspection should be performed.

Next, the SYMI value is plotted as a function of the time length of the time reversed signal as shown in Figure 11 (b).
Based on the definition of the SYMI, the SYMI value should converge to zero as the length of the time-reversed signal
increases. However, when the time-reversed signal is truncated in the middle of any mode, the SYMI value increases.
(Because a non-symmetric mode is reemitted, the resulting reconstructed signal becomes non-symmetric as well.) The
SYMI value in Figure 11 (b) has the first local minimum value when the time-reversed signal is truncated at the end of
S0 mode. Subsequently, it has several local maximum values when the time-reversed signal is truncated in the middle of
the second mode produced by either mode conversion or reflections from the web. Similar local maximum points are
also observed when the time-reversed signal is trimmed in the middle of the A0 mode. The SYMI value obtained from
the scaled girder shows a similar pattern as shown in Figure 12 (a). In this case, the additional mode between the S0 and
A0 modes is produced by the reflection from the stiffener.

U..'
Reflection or Mode donvers'on:
Reflection --

::j
Reflection from upp.r and
_________________ lower eges of the web

(a) Forwarding signal in Path 2 case

(a) Forwarding signal in Lab testing

0.4

0.3

2 2.5 3 3.5
The length of reversed tin (sec)
,c
(}j) Changc of SYMI in Path 2 case
Figure 11: Forwarding signal (a) and the change of SYMI as a
function of the truncation time for the TRP (b) in Path 2 case
JiiiiiiiiIiiiiiiiiiiiii
4
The length of reversed time (see) xl o
(b) Change of SYMI in Lab testing
Figure 12: Forwarding signal (a) and the change of SYMI as a
function of the truncation time for the TRP (b) in lab testing

5.4 Wave Propagation between a Web and a Stiffener (Path 5 case)

Here, the wave characteristics propagating between a web and a stiffener (Path 5 in Figure 9) are investigated. In this path
5 case, the measured arrival time of each Lamb wave mode well agrees with the theoretical calculation as shown in 5.3.
( VS0 = 4.825 m/ms and tS0 = 0.5762 m / 4,825 m/ms = 0.119 ms; tS0 ref (The arrival time of S0 reflection) = (0.5672 +
2 × 0.0762) / 4.825 = 0.151 ms; VA0 = 3.125 m/ms, t A0 = 0.5762 m / 3.125 m/ms = 0.184 ms and t A0 ref = (0.5672 +
2 × 0.0762) / 3.125 = 0.230 ms) [Figure 13 (a)]. In Figure 13 (b), a reconstructed signal after the TRP is shown. Due to
the reflections from the edge of the stiffener, time reversed signal has many sidebands. The effect of reflections form the
edge of the stiffener on the TRP should be further investigated.

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 2
Original Input
Reconstructed signal

Scaled Amplitude
1
VoltageM

-1

-2
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Time (Sec) -5
x 10
(a) Forwarding signal (b) Reconstructed signal (0.3 ms reversed)
Figure 13: Forwarding signal and reconstructed signal between PZTs at a girder and a stiffener (Path 5 in Figure 9)

6. CONCLUSION

The feasibility of the proposed baseline-free NDT technique is investigated using field measurements obtained from the
Buffalo Creek Bridge in Pennsylvania. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study that applied the time
reversal concept to a field bridge structure. First, when analog and digital filtering are applied, the elastic guided waves
created by an actuating PZT were successfully measured at a sensing PZT even at the presence of normal traffic loading.
It also has been demonstrated that the Lamb wave propagation can be much influenced by the grounding condition of
PZT transducers. Next, the mode conversions and reflections created by the stiffener welded to the steel girder web were
clearly detected using the proposed symmetric index. However, further research is warranted to reliably detect crack
damage near the connection between the stiffener and the web. In particular, the complexity of the guided waves due to
the stiffener needs to be addressed.

7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research is partially supported by Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance (PITA) Program and
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). The first author would like to acknowledge the graduate
fellowship program from Samsung Lee Kun Hee Scholarship Foundation in Seoul, Korea. The authors would like to
thank Paul Majoris and James Johnson for granting access to the Buffalo Creek Bridge site. The authors also would like
to thank Profs. David W. Greve and Irving J. Oppenheim for providing invaluable comments and making the scaled
girder specimen available for our study.

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