DEVELOPMENT OF SONIC AND ULTRASONIC POWER DEVICES FOR APPLICATION IN HIGHWAY ENGINEERING-EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-FINAL REPORT

AN 8-YEAR EFFORT HAS BEEN DIRECTED TOWARD INVENTION OF NEW EQUIPMENT AND PROCESSES TO DELIVER HIGH-ENERGY DENSITIES OF SONIC ENERGY AT A SELECTED WORK SURFACE AND TOWARD DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE ENERGY CONVERTERS OR TRANSDUCERS TO CONVERT ELECTRICAL ENERGY TO HIGH-FREQUENCY VIBRATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF PERFORMING WORK. APPLICATION STUDIES IN THE HIGHWAY FIELD, CHIEFLY OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, HAVE BEEN BROAD RATHER THAN DEEP, I.E., COMMERCIAL PROTOTYPES HAVE NOT BEEN BUILT, AND SPECIFIC PROCESSES HAVE NOT BEEN INVESTIGATED TO DETERMINE THE SONIC PARAMETERS CONTROLLING AN OBSERVED BENEFIT OR THE MEANS OF OPTIMIZING THEM. THE MOST COMPLETE OF THE APPLICATION STUDIES IS THE USE OF HIGH- FREQUENCY, HIGH-POWER RESONANT TRANSDUCERS TO PROCESS CONCRETE AS IT IS BEING MIXED. A 200-300% INCREASE IN UNCONFINED COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF CONVENTIONAL CONCRETE HAS BEEN REALIZED WITH THIS PROCESS. PROMISING AREAS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH IN HIGHWAY APPLICATIONS OF HIGH-POWER SONIC SYSTEMS ARE: (1) GROOVING HIGHWAYS WITH STEEL TOOL RATHER THAN DIAMOND WHEELS, (2) DRIVING FENCEPOSTS WITH LOW STATIC FORCE DEVICES, (3) REDUCING TO ONE-THIRD THE NORMAL FRICTION IN LAYING CONCRETE, E.G., WITH SLIP-FORM PAVERS, (4) DRILLING AND PENETRATING ROCK AND CONCRETE WITH STEEL TOOLS WITHOUT REQUIRING CUTTING EDGES ON THE TOOLS, (5) CRUSHING BRITTLE MATERIALS SUCH AS ROCK BY ECONOMICAL MEANS, (6) ROUGHENING THE SURFACE OF HIGHWAYS TO INCREASE FRICTION, (7) PLANING CONCRETE SURFACES TO REDUCE UNEVENNESS, AND OTHER APPLICATIONS IN MINING, TUNNELING, BLASTHOLE DRILLING, ETC..

• Corporate Authors:

  Ohio State University, Columbus

  190 North Oval Drive
  Columbus, OH  United States  43210

  Ohio Department of Highways

  Columbus, OH  United States  43210

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • McMaster, R C
  • Libby, C C
  • Graff, K
  • Minchenko, H
• Publication Date: 1970-9

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Compressive strength; Concrete; Concrete mixing; Crushing; Cutting; Drilling; Friction; Highways; Pavement grooving; Pavements; Planing; Rocks; Roughness; Skid resistance; Sonics; Surface course (Pavements); Texture; Ultrasonics
• Old TRIS Terms: Sonic drilling
• Subject Areas: Construction; Geotechnology; Highways; Materials; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00215941
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Federal Highway Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: Ees-220
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jan 11 1971 12:00AM