Characterization of ultrasonic Rayleigh surface waves in asphaltic concrete

This research examines the application of ultrasonic Rayleigh surface waves to the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of asphaltic concrete in the frequency range 40–100 kHz. Two ultrasonic parameters, the phase velocity and amplitude attenuation, are considered to be sensitive to local compositional and structural variations and are measured. A wedge technique is used to generate Rayleigh surface waves in an asphaltic concrete beam with uniformly distributed aggregate, and this technique is shown to be effective in launching Rayleigh waves in this highly viscoelastic (absorptive) and heterogeneous medium. Three different ultrasonic detection setups using contact and non-contact transducers as receivers are examined and their results are compared. The experimental results show that the wedge generation technique along with an air-coupled receiving transducer with a finite-size aperture is the most reliable for characterizing Rayleigh waves in asphaltic concrete. It is also experimentally demonstrated that the proposed setup may be used to detect aggregate segregation in asphaltic concrete.