Reflectance Spectroscopy as a Tool to Assess the Quality of Concrete

Modern high-performance concrete is an extremely durable and complex material including liquid hardeners, its hydration and internal curing possibly provides additional complexity. Processes such hydration, curing, sealing, and hardening ensure that the concrete achieves its full potential and that it meets the design parameters. However, measuring these processes in the field is complex if not impossible. The present pioneer study demonstrates a novel technique for rapid in-situ assessment and near real-time monitoring of concrete maturity using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and hyperspectral remote sensing technologies. This technique is a non-complex solution for estimating quantitative and qualitative parameters of concrete status and strength. To enlarge the application envelope the spatial assessment of concrete is developed and presented. The spatial assessment is produced by applying spectral models onto hypercspectral images obtained by ground and airborne sensors. The multi-sensor and multi-dimensional structure of the produced data is integrated into fully operated practical 3-D urban environment application.