Use of Impact Echo Method in Restoration in Old Havana
Abstract
The impact method for mechanical waves is a nondestructive testing technique (NDT) developed for the determination of the state of the concrete in bridges and highways. In this work it is carried out its extension to the diagnosis of buildings in the restoration process. The method shows a group of features that makes it attractive: the precise determination of defects (fissures, inlays, holes, thickness of structures and lamination) and it doesn’t need great instrumental assembly for its application. It is presented a preliminary study of the application of the impact echo method in the flaw detection in one building of Old Havana. Particularly the evaluation of columns is studied for the case of Santa Isabel Hotel, constructed in the eighteenth century with ashlars’ columns of calcareous rocks covered with stucco based on cement.
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