Sarah McGuire of Giatec Scientific presents a look at the advancement, use, and benefits of wireless technology in maturity meter testing for the evaluation of concrete strength in Indiana and in the international concrete construction community.
Concrete strength is one of the most important parameters specified by structural engineers in the design of concrete structures, but, despite the process of casting, curing, and breaking field-cured cylinders being fully standardized, “low breaks” are still a major challenge in concrete construction. When this happens, additional steps must be taken to record and confirm the compressive strength of your in- situ concrete before you can move on to the next steps in your project. Impacts to a project include loss time in scheduling, additional investigative costs and other constructability delays occur.
Contracts, engineers and other stakeholders in concrete construction projects, rely on achieving acceptable in- place strength values before initiating critical operations such as formwork removal, post-tensioning, saw cutting etc. Concrete strength development is greatly affected by ambient conditions; accurate monitoring and prediction is still a challenge especially in cold seasons. The ACI 318 code for in-place strength testing, refers to the maturity method as one of the acceptable test methods, but it has yet to be fully accepted and implemented by the industry. Time to reconsider past practices. Please join us to learn more about the insights and use of wireless technology of maturity testing vs. field cured cylinders and how new technology advancements have made this method easier and more readily available to implement.
