Our Services

Site Inspection and Testing

BAE’s engineers develop inspection and testing programs tailored to specific structural assets in various exposure conditions to provide information required for structural and durability assessment.  The assets may be in various exposure conditions such as marine, industrial, sewerage, atmosphere, mining, including inground and abrasive.  The asset types may be the bridges, tunnels, wharfs, jetties, seawalls, tanks, pipelines, road furniture, pavement, buildings, process plants, waste treatment, signage, retaining walls and theatres. 

BAE has an advanced range of inspection and testing equipment and our experienced engineers and technicians have developed detailed procedures in radar, ultrasonic, eddy current, chemical analysis and related analysis techniques.  We have the technical support from international experts and have applied various non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques in challenging conditions. 

Testing includes, Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) scanning is used to identify cover/layout of reinforcement/embedment to determine the thickness of concrete elements and the service lines in the ground.  The cover meter can be also used to determine rebar depth and locations. Further to this we have mapped corrosion across entire concrete bridge decks as well as sub-bottom profiling (bathymetry) or sediment in watercourses. The ultra-sonic assessments include Impact Echo used to identify defects (cracks/joints, voids and honeycombs) in concrete and determine the geometric configuration of elements. Other ultra-sonic testing includes UPV (ultrasonic pulse velocity), SEIR (sonic echo impulse response, SR (slab response), PS (parallel seismic), SASW (spectral analysis of surface waves). All these methodologies have unique and useful applications in allowing for an insight into the internal confines of structural elements.

Concrete strength may be determined vis UCS (unconfined compression strength) or non-destructively with a rebound hammer (Schmidt hammer). There are a range of assessment methodologies and we prefer to undertake a crush test (UCS) to calibrate the rebound hammer and then test widely using the non-destructive technique. This may be quickly and effectively applied over a wide area cost effectively.

BAE will also undertake corrosion surveys using various electrochemical devices which measure resistivity, potentials, polarization resistance of reinforcement. 

Concrete abrasion depth, using the dressing wheels method, have been used to tested and assess concrete ability to resistance to abrasion and surface wear.      

Destructive testing is necessary in some cases during inspection, although we prefer to minimise the disruption.   For example, obtaining and crushing core samples from the structure and the removal of concrete samples to allow for chemical analysis as to the ingress of corrosive contamination. The UCS core-crushing is undertaken in a NATA credited lab can be organized and handled by our project team to ensure accurate results.  Other tests such as pull-off tensile testing on coating, render, overlays and repair mortar can be also performed.

For concrete structures exposed to a chloride laden environment, the corrosion of reinforcement and consequent damage to concrete is a major deterioration mechanism. The determination of the time to corrosion initiation is a primary part of service life analysis, BAE engineers have developed new generation mathematical models and used them in numerous condition/durability assessment projects. 

The chloride concentration profiles can be measured on drilled/cored samples at incremental depths from surface.  These chloride profiles can be matched with the calculated curves using the chloride models and the selected input parameters such as chloride diffusivity, exposure time, age factor, surface chloride concentration and build-up rate.  This allows for the determination as to the assessed time to initiation of corrosion of the reinforcement.

The probability of reinforcement corrosion initiating and propagating at various times and rates can be determined with known key input parameters.  The sulphate concentration profiles in concrete exposed sulphate environment can be measured to similarly determine whether sulphate attack on concrete has or will occur.

Carbonation ingress measurements on cores or drill holes can be determined by spraying a carbonation indicator made of phenolphthalein solution in water and alcohol.  The depth of carbonation ingress at the testing age can be used to predict carbonation depth at future periods in time using our leading modelling technique.  This can be used to determine whether reinforcing bars have corroded or when corrosion may initiate.  The depth of acid attack and surface erosion may be determined in a similar manner using the phenolphthalein indicator. 

Our engineers have conducted monitoring on deformation or strain of concrete elements using vibrating wire crack gauges and data logging system.  We have monitored the deformation of stress bars in rock anchors under cyclic and incremental loading condition on major projects and cyclic movement of bridge beams with changes in ambient temperatures. 

We can provide verification of inspection and investigation projects and issue Form 16 (Inspection Certificate) according to Queensland Building Act.