Evaluation of thickness and identification of defects in masonry elements using impact-echo technique

Abstract

This paper aims at the applicability of Impact-echo (IE) technique on the evaluation of thickness and identification of defects in masonry elements, when only one side is accessible. Studies have been carried out on a specially cast wall panels of brick masonry at CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre, Chennai, exclusively for the data generation and validation of different NDT techniques. B-scan images and amplitude spectra have been used to analyse the IE data. It has been observed that IE technique can be effectively used to evaluate the thickness and identify the defects by studying the B-scan images in masonry structural elements.