Non-destructive testing and evaluation
STS offers specialized non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of construction materials as an integral part of our comprehensive field construction services for new and existing structures. STS employs the most widely used techniques and equipment in the industry.
STS has extensive non-destructive evaluation experience including over 400 vibration assessments nationwide for the installation of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems and more than 3,000 drilled shaft foundations tested nationally and internationally for large bridges and high-rise buildings. We also have performed facade inspection and/or management of renovation on several high-rise buildings in the United States and completed condition assessments of more than 20 industrial and utility chimneys ranging in height from 200 to 800 feet.
Why Non-Destructive Evaluation?
- Budget constraints and tighter timelines have increased the demand for the advantages of NDE methods
- Many structures are approaching the end of their original design life and need extensive assessment for planning appropriate renovation measures.
- Technology advances and the demand for higher resolution make precision equipment and medical imaging devices more sensitive to vibration and other environmental influences.
- The urban soil is becoming increasingly congested with buried utilities, and the cost of damage caused by inadvertent excavation and/or interruption of service is escalating as lawsuits push awards higher.
Non-destructive evaluation provides value to our clients in three major areas:
- Methods are more economical than traditional sampling and laboratory testing.
- Data can be obtained that may be impractical or impossible by traditional means.
- Turnaround time is much faster than traditional test methods.
STS offers a rare “one-stop shopping” experience to our clients due to our broad range of services and experienced staff.
- Full range of both traditional and NDE techniques.
- Better equipped to provide the most economical and appropriate combination of test methods.
- Support of a full spectrum of civil, environmental, geotechnical and structural experts to assist with all stages of project assessment, design and execution.
- National and international experience.
- Laboratory facility equipped for all traditional soil, asphalt, geo-textile and concrete tests to support and corroborate NDE test results.
- Personnel actively participate in test method research and standards development work through professional associations.
Corrosion assessment
- Carbonation depth tests
- Half-cell potential
- Rate of corrosion
Deep foundation integrity tests
- Crosshole sonic logging (CSL)
- Impulse response tests
- Sonic echo tests
Geophysical methods
- Conductivity
- Ground penetrating radar
- Magnetometry
- Resistivity
Structural NDE methods
- Electromagnetic rebar locators
- Ground penetrating radar
- Impact echo tests
- Impulse response tests
- Optical borescopes
Vibration assessment
- Automated remote vibration monitors (RVMs)
- High-definition vibration analyzers
- Seismographs
