Publication detail

Pulse-Echo Ultrasonic Verification of Silicate Surface Treatments Using an External-Excitation/Single-Receiver Configuration: ROC-Based Differentiation of Concrete Specimens

TOPOLÁŘ, L. KALINA, L. MARKUSÍK, D. CÁBA, V. SEDLAČÍK, M. ČERNÝ, F. SKIBICKY, S. BÍLEK, V.

Original Title

Pulse-Echo Ultrasonic Verification of Silicate Surface Treatments Using an External-Excitation/Single-Receiver Configuration: ROC-Based Differentiation of Concrete Specimens

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

This study investigates a non-destructive, compact pulse-echo ultrasonic method that combines an external transmitter with a single receiving sensor to identify different surface treatments applied to cementitious materials. The primary objective was to evaluate whether treatment-induced acoustic changes could be reliably quantified using time-domain signal parameters. Three types of surface conditions were examined: untreated reference specimens (R), specimens treated with a standard lithium silicate solution (A), and those treated with an enriched formulation containing hexylene glycol (B) intended to enhance pore sealing via gelation. A broadband piezoelectric receiver collected the backscattered echoes, from which the maximum amplitude, root mean square (RMS) voltage, signal energy, and effective duration were extracted. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was conducted to quantify the discriminative power of each parameter. The results showed excellent classification performance between groups involving the B-treatment (AUC ≥ 0.96), whereas the R vs. A comparison yielded moderate separation (AUC ≈ 0.61). Optimal cut-off values were established using the Youden index, with sensitivity and specificity exceeding 96% in the best-performing scenarios. The results demonstrate that a single-receiver, one-sided pulse-echo arrangement coupled with straightforward amplitude metrics provides a rapid, cost-effective, and field-adaptable tool for the quality control of silicate-surface treatments. By translating laboratory ultrasonics into a practical on-site protocol, this study helps close the gap between the experimental characterisation and real-world implementation of surface-treatment verification.

Keywords

pulse-echo ultrasonic testing; non-destructive evaluation; surface treatment identification; silicate sealer; ROC analysis; cement-based materials; quality control

Authors

TOPOLÁŘ, L.; KALINA, L.; MARKUSÍK, D.; CÁBA, V.; SEDLAČÍK, M.; ČERNÝ, F.; SKIBICKY, S.; BÍLEK, V.

Released

11. 8. 2025

Publisher

MDPI

Location

Switzerland

ISBN

1996-1944

Periodical

Materials

Year of study

18

Number

16

State

Swiss Confederation

Pages from

1

Pages to

22

Pages count

22

URL

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/18/16/3765

Full text in the Digital Library

http://hdl.handle.net/11012/255476

BibTex

@article{BUT198518,
  author="Libor {Topolář} and Lukáš {Kalina} and David {Markusík} and Vladislav {Cába} and Martin {Sedlačík} and Felix {Černý} and Szymon {Skibicky} and Vlastimil {Bílek}",
  title="Pulse-Echo Ultrasonic Verification of Silicate Surface Treatments Using an External-Excitation/Single-Receiver Configuration: ROC-Based Differentiation of Concrete Specimens",
  journal="Materials",
  year="2025",
  volume="18",
  number="16",
  pages="22",
  doi="10.3390/ma18163765",
  issn="1996-1944",
  url="https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/18/16/3765"
}