Structural cables have been a key part of rapidly modernizing infrastructure. With high mechanical properties, cables assist in taking large loads under tension. Some of the highly efficient cable structures include suspension bridges, prestressed concrete structures, and cable-stayed roofs. However, there is always a chance of damage in structures even if designed perfectly. To ensure the safety and serviceability of the structures, structural health monitoring and non-destructive techniques are necessary. When it comes to cables, corrosion and fracture are highly damaging conditions that lead to stress concentrations and ultimately can cause structural failure. There is always a need for non-destructive techniques to detect at the initial stages of cross-sectional damage in a cable. However, it is difficult to perform non-destructive testing on the cables when embedded in concrete, like in prestressed concrete bridges and the supports of cable-stayed roofs. Therefore, an effective and validated way to identify and quantify the damage of the cables which are inside the concrete is needed. For this research, ultrasonic testing is used to identify the damage. The main objectives of the project are: (i) to identify existing and reliable non-destructive testing methods for cables, (ii) to develop dispersion curves of ultrasonic waves using analytical computation, (iii) to model a cable using finite element analysis, (iv) to use time-frequency analysis to develop dispersion curves out of numerical results and (v) to relate damage in cables to changes in dispersion curves. The proposed method will be reliable and versatile such that it can be used on any type of structure which has structural cables.
