Nondestructive Evaluation

New tool will give large concrete structures what amounts to an ultrasound, finding tiny cracks before they grow

A researcher measures the width of a crack in a reinforced concrete column after testing the strength of the column. A new project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency will develop a field-deployable tool to detect cracks far smaller than this — and inside rather than outside — thick reinforced concrete structures. (Photo: Chris Kiser)

Imagine giving large concrete structures something similar to an ultrasound and getting images so detailed you can see cracks just a tenth of a millimeter long. That level of detail just isn’t possible now. Yet such capability could revolutionize how engineers assess the health of thick reinforced concrete infrastructure like dams and power plants and bridges.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Jacobs’ nondestructive evaluation work earns lifetime achievement honor

Professor and Associate Dean Laurence Jacobs, left, accepts a lifetime achievement award in nondestructive evaluation from Tribikram Kundu at the SPIE Smart Structures and Nondestructive Evaluation Symposium in early March. (Photo Courtesy: Laurence Jacobs and SPIE)

An international organization dedicated to advancing light-based research and technology has given Laurence Jacobs a lifetime achievement award for his work on nondestructive evaluation.

Friday, March 15, 2019

Kim’s work on detecting carbonation in concrete named one of Materials and Structures top papers of 2015

The board of editors of the journal Materials and Structures has picked an article by Ph.D. student Gun Kim as one of its outstanding papers of 2015. The research, which demonstrated a new noninvasive way to measure the carbonation of concrete, will now be available online for free as a result. In a letter to one of Kim’s advisers, Laurence Jacobs, Jason Weiss from Materials and Structures said only 10 papers earn the distinction each year.

Thursday, November 5, 2015
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Georgia Institute of Technology
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