Defect identification system

Detecting defects and monitoring the health of various renewable energy structures are necessary to maintain its structural integrity. The civil engineering lab in Kunsan National University have proposed methods in determining material defects.

Difficult soils and hydrogeological conditions can cause pile defects and impair its constructed pile geometry and material quality, which reduces pile strength and capacity. Therefore, low strain testing such as the impact echo test method have been extensively used to evaluate pile integrity, uniformity, and continuity. Nonlinear amplification is typically done on velocity signals from low-strain pile integrity tests to enhance weak echoes and superimpose any peak reflections. This conventional method may sometimes fail to untangle the hidden information within the signal that is obscured by the presence of noise. A new pile defect identification system is used, wherein signals are decomposed by WPT after the conventional nonlinear amplification method is applied to easily detect the presence of any geometric or material defects by identifying feature parameters.