Product

We are developping embedded piezoelectric transducers for ultrasonic monitoring of concrete from the very early age until the end of the its lifetime

Ultrasonic monitoring of concrete is an efficient and well established non-destructive technique . The use of external transducers presents several drawbacks, of which the most important are the difficulty to automate the tests in different situations, and to access concrete surfaces

We have developed cheap, small and very efficient embedded piezoelectric transducers which allow to remove these barriers, and provide excellent coupling with the concrete without the need of coupling gel.

The transducers can be attached to any commercial ultrasonic testing device for both passive and active wave based monitoring and evaluation

A unique technology !

Our transducers are the results of 10 years of research with the aim to maximize their performance from the very early age with a focus on size (compatibility with aggregate size) and cost. The design is based on advanced computational models and they have been validated on numerous laboratory and field applications which have been reported in details in the scientific literature, and is under patenting. The transducers are currently used in the underground Rogier tunnel in Brussels.

Our technology in video

Our transducers can be used in different types of application .

Early age monitoring

Due to the very high performance of the transducers, they can be used to perform ultrasonic testing of concrete from the very early age in order to determine the setting time and the evolution of the mechanical properties

Crack monitoring

The transducers can also be used for crack monitoring using active (pitch-catch) or passive (acoustic emission) techniques in laboratory tests such as three-point bending tests, cylinder compression or pull-out tests

Real-time monitoring of civil infrastructure

Automated structural health monitoring systems can be developed using our sensing technology for real-time and on-line civil infrastructure monitoring