AUTOMATED MONITORING OF CONCRETE PLACEMENT AND VIBRATION PRACTICES FOR REAL-TIME QUALITY CONTROL

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2022

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Abstract

Inappropriate concrete placement and vibration practices cause quality problems such as honeycombs and cold joints, and they can lead construction projects to delays, cost overruns, and disputes. However, many projects still fail to detect poor workmanship on the spot and frequently observe quality problems. The current monitoring method which relies on a visual inspection is too time-consuming and labor-intensive to achieve all-time monitoring of compliance. Besides, assessment and evaluation of the laborers’ workmanship are not consistent due to the different levels of knowledge among the managers and their subjective interpretation of the observation. Therefore, in order to help the managers to assure the quality of concrete operations and to prevent the concrete defects in a proactive manner, this dissertation research designed and developed a solution that monitors the quality of workmanship in regard to concrete placement and vibration. It gathers real-time data from ultrasonic and electromagnetic positioning sensors and sends an alert to the user (e.g., managers and superintendents) immediately when the concrete work-related parameters are out of the required range. The solution was tested at a testbed and a construction site managed by the Department of Facilities Management at the University of Maryland. It observed vibration insertions and captured warning instances accurately, which indicated that it could serve as all-time surveillance on concrete work and reduce the burden of supervising tasks for the managers.

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