Structural investigation of buildings and walls
Typical questions related to concrete and reinforced concrete structures are the location of the reinforcement bars, the thickness of the concrete as well as the delineation of possible cavities, fractures and failure zones. Our high-frequency, non-destructive ground penetrating (GPR) radar systems can reliably answer these questions.
The GPR technology can help to map the internal structure of reinforced-concrete objects in high resolution, and can be also used for engineering sizing applications.
Advantage of the radar technology is the real-time mapping of the structure in question, which enables us to provide preliminary results to our Client even on the site.
Further advantages are that it is quick, non-destructive and very precise.
Investigation of the reasons for tile floor detachments in a public swimming pool
In a public swimming pool in Budapest the tile flooring (in an area of nearly 7m in diameter) detached from the underlying concrete. To investigate the reasons a high resolution radar survey was performed.
It has been found that the detachment surface is clearly at the boundary of the structural and mounting concrete. To investigate the phenomenon, the boundaries of the two layers were mapped on the data set, which revealed the extension of the detachment. Similar features were observed in several smaller patches in the western and northern part of the pool.
From the data a so-called amplitude depth section was created (shown in the figure), which shows the reflexivity characteristic of the given depth. The depth section represents approximately a depth of 3 cm. The data shows that the swelling of the tiles visible on the surface is only the smaller part of the problem. The structural anomaly spreads into a much larger area, and it affects primarily the lower part of the mounting concrete. A much stronger reflexivity is observed in the northwest corner of the pool and on the eastern side.
