Non-destructive Evaluation of Absolute Stress in Steel Members Using Shear-Wave Spectroscopy

Non-destructive measurement of absolute stress in steel members can provide useful information to optimize the design of steel structures and allow the safety of existing structures to be evaluated. This paper investigates the non-destructive capability of ultrasonic shear-wave spectroscopy in absolute stress evaluation of steel members. The effect of steel-member stress on the shear-wave amplitude spectrum is investigated, and a method of absolute stress measurement is proposed. Specifically, the process for evaluating absolute stress using shear-wave spectroscopy is summarized. Two steel members are employed to investigate the relationship between the stress and the frequency in shear-wave echo amplitude spectrum. The H-beam loaded by the universal testing machine is evaluated by the proposed method and the traditional strain gauge method for verification. The results show that the proposed method is effective and accurate for determining absolute stress in steel members.