Structural Assesment of Concrete Piers in A Barrage Project by Testing Extracted Concrete Cores

Functional life of any barrage project depends on functional stability of the concrete piers. The piers are constructed using concrete of different grades. Its durability is dependent on various factors viz. speed of running water, its aggressivity, temperatures fluctuations etc. The endurance capacity of these piers against these adverse conditions goes on reducing with passage of time. Gradually permeability of concrete increases which causes leaching of binding materials thus weakening the structure. Once such a phenomenon is observed in any such structures a vigilant periodic monitoring approach becomes mandatory. The suitable remedial measure to be adopted will depend on the observed degree of deterioration. In this paper effort has been made to assess the status of concrete in the piers of a barrage project by extracting the cores and finding their density, compressive strength and internal status using Portable Ultrasound Nondestructive Digital Indicator Tester. Keywords— Leaching, Pier, Ultrasonic, Non-destructive, pulse velocity, Compressive Strength.