IMPEDANCE SPECTROMETRY AS A NOVEL METHOD TO CORRELATE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF CONCRETES WITH DIFFERENT ADDITIONS

Some traditional testing methods for concretes may not be well adapted to give sufficient or accurate information to determine special concrete qualities, during their curing process. The innovative testing method proposed in this article, uses impedance spectroscopy to establish electrical properties of concretes in order to correlate it with their mechanical properties. Furthermore it is intended to use a fuzzy clustering methodology to model and classify concretes within a multidimensional space composed by selected physical properties. This paper shows different testing protocols for carrying out the impedance spectroscopy; it develops a discussion on benefits and constraints of the different testing methods and it shows possible correlations between the transfer functions obtained by the impedance spectroscopy and the mechanical properties of special concretes obtained by other usual testings. From this analysis, a protocol will be suggested to be followed when there is an interest to describe material properties of concretes based on their impedance spectra.