Compact ultrasound board for measurement of concrete compressive strength

Concrete is composed of sands, aggregates, cement and other fine powders that are dispersed in water to produce a chemical reaction, called hydration, responsible of the concrete hardening. The monitoring of the growth of compressive strength during hydration and its measurement at the end of the reaction is fundamental for evaluating the concrete quality. Currently the strength is measured in laboratory with destructing tests, mostly made by crushing concrete cubes in a calibrated compression machine. This manual and expensive process can be replaced by a non-destructive measurement of the reflection coefficient of ultrasound waves at an interface where the material is poured. In this work we present a compact and programmable ultrasound board that embeds all the electronics necessary for generating, acquiring and processing the ultrasound signal for automatically monitoring the concrete strength during and after the hydration process. The board runs on battery and can be deployed in the construction site where it automatically monitors the hardening process for days.