On the wave propagation in concrete

The recently proposed iterative effective medium approximation (Tsinopoulos et al., Advanced Composites Letters, vol.9, pp. 94-101, 2000) and the non-destructive method of acousto-ultrasonics are employed here for the investigation of the effect of the aggregates on the velocity and the attenuation of a longitudinal elastic wave propagating through a concrete medium. Concrete is assumed as a two-phase material consisting of a homogenized elastic matrix (mortar) reinforced by randomly and uniformly distributed elastic inclusions (aggregates). The agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental observations indicate that the effect of the randomly distributed aggregates on the propagation of a pressure wave in concrete can be isolated.