ALTERNATE AND DIRECT CURRENT ANALYSIS OF CONCRETE

Rajdeep Srivastava, Aruj Kaushik, Radhkrishna

Abstract: We live in an era where houses and other institutional buildings are getting more and more automated and sophisticated; this boom in the construction industry is accompanied by an increasing risk of structural failures. This paper illustrates the determination of electrical properties of concrete for the purpose of structural health monitoring. Concrete blocks of size (150 x 150 x 150 mm) were used as test specimen and 2-point probe method was used for plotting I-V characteristics, for both direct and alternating current supply. The semiconductor nature of cement matrix was studied as a combination of Resistance-Capacitance Circuit along with its applications. It was found that conductivity of concrete decreases on ageing in a definite pattern, and conductivity can be used to comment on durability and quality of concrete. However, under loading, an impedance jump is observed, owing to induction of cracks or voids in concrete.

Keywords: Conductance, Conductivity, Impedance, Resistance, and Durability

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2016.0526020