EXPERIMENTAL STUDY FOR ESTIMATING TENSION FORCE OF GROUND ANCHORS BY HAMMERING TECHNOLOGY

The ground anchor has been used as one of stabilizing technologies for cut slopes. The measurement of residual tensile force of ground anchor has been conventionally carried out by lift-off testing, however the development of a simple alternative tension measuring method is required in terms of cost and time. In this study, we have been continuously developing the application of a digital hammering technology using an acoustic emission sensor, which has been practically used as an anchor bolt inspection in nuclear power plants, etc. to the estimation of the tensile force of ground anchors. This paper shows our approach to evaluate and verify the applicability of the technology and to find out remaining tasks based on laboratory testing, finite element method (FEM) analyses and field inspection results in order to try to estimate the tensile force of ground anchor with the screw type anchorage device.