This use case demonstrates how the Elop Insight ultrasonic concrete scanner measures the thickness of fiber-reinforced concrete floor slabs in a newly built warehouse. By providing accurate concrete depth mapping, the scanner helps identify potential problem areas, ensuring the safety, quality, and long-term stability of the structure.
Why Concrete Depth Mapping Matters
The Elop Insight ultrasonic scanner is designed to penetrate fiber reinforced concrete, a material widely used in warehouse and industrial floor slab construction, and produce accurate floor slab depth maps. Accurate concrete depth mapping and floor slab thickness verification help engineers verify construction quality, reduce the risk of punching shear, and counter differential moments caused by dead loads and live loads, such as heavy storage systems.
As a non-destructive testing (NDT) solution, Elop Insight’s rolling scanning capability enables long inspections to be completed quickly, making concrete slab inspection both time- and cost-efficient.
Warehouse Floor Slab Inspection
In a recent project, a construction company contacted Field, a technology company specializing in sustainability and geodata, to measure the thickness of the warehouse floor slab. Tobias Jokisch, Senior Geophysicist at Field, was assigned to the project and chose the Elop Insight scanner because it had previously demonstrated reliable performance on steel fiber-reinforced concrete.
The structural drawings specified an ideal slab depth of 13.5 cm, with a minimum acceptable thickness of 11 cm. Elop Insight measured an average depth of 12.5 cm, verifying that the floor slab exceeded the required minimum thickness. This provided confidence to the building owners that the warehouse floor met the design requirements.
In addition, the depth mapping identified localized areas where the concrete thickness approached the 11 cm threshold, as shown in the scan profile below.
“Now that Elop Insight is retrofitted with a trolley for easier data capture, the job could be completed both quickly and cost-effectively,” said Tobias Jokisch.
Figure 1. Cross-section of the warehouse floor slab (top) and scan profile highlighting areas where the concrete thickness was close to 11 cm (bottom). Courtesy of Field/Tobias Jokisch.
Figure 2: Concrete depth map of the warehouse floor slab generated by Elop Insight ultrasonic scanner.
Benefits of Elop Insight
Emir Evlic, CEO of Elop Technology, said:
“We are thrilled to offer the building industry a solution that changes the way concrete structures are verified. Our ultrasonic scanner can penetrate fiber reinforced concrete and efficiently verify the actual geometry beneath the surface. Building owners can now perform accurate concrete depth mapping and floor slab thickness verification without destructive testing.”
The Elop Insight scanner enables contractors, engineers, and asset owners to verify slab geometry quickly, accurately, and without damaging the concrete. By combining rolling ultrasonic scanning with advanced SAFT-based imaging, the system helps identify areas that require further investigation while reducing inspection time and costs.
Concrete depth mapping with the Elop Insight ultrasonic scanner provides a fast, reliable, and non-destructive method for verifying floor slab thickness in newly constructed warehouses and other concrete structures. By delivering accurate measurements and clear depth maps, the system helps contractors and asset owners confirm construction quality, support structural verification, identify potential problem areas, and make informed decisions before the structure enters service.