Feasibility of water seepage monitoring in concrete with embedded smart aggregates by P-wave travel time measurement

Water seepage in concrete threatens the safety of marine constructions and reduces the durability of concrete structures. This note presents a smart aggregate-based monitoring method to monitor the travel time evolution of a harmonic stress wave during the water infiltrating process in concrete structures. An experimental investigation, in which two plain concrete columns were examined under different water infiltration cases, verified the validity of the proposed monitoring method. The test results show that the travel time of the harmonic stress wave is sensitive to the development of water seepage in concrete and decreases with increasing water seepage depth. The proposed active monitoring method provides an innovative approach to monitor water seepage in concrete structures.