Improved TDR Method for Quality Control of Soil-Nailing Works

Time domain reflectometry (TDR) has become an effective nondestructive testing method for soil-nailing inspection. Previous studies utilized a preinstalled, single-core, electric wire alongside the rebar within the soil nail. Measurements may be affected by possible grout defects and excessively overestimate the rebar length if the wire is coiled around the rebar. An improved TDR waveguide and a corresponding decoupled data reduction method (for both soil-nail length determination and grout condition inspection) are proposed herein. The feasibility and advantages of the new approach were experimentally verified with two types of TDR device. The proposed methodology makes it possible to use a portable, low-cost, and low-speed TDR device as a quick and economical tool for quality control of soil nailing.