Design and optimization of an instrument for measuring bughole rating of concrete surfaces

Bugholes are surface imperfections that appear as small pits and craters on concrete surface after the casting process. Bugholes are cosmetic surface imperfections and do not affect the structural integrity of the concrete structure. However, existences of these imperfections increase cost since bugholes require additional surface preparations before painting or finishing the concrete surface. Additionally, these surface imperfections cause secondary problems by decreasing the cover on RC making incretion of salts into the reinforcement bars inside RC. In this paper, authors discuss development of a new device to measure “bughole” rating of concrete surface. The innovative technique used in design enables us to manufacture a compact instrument, which is physically small, lightweight and practical. The paper explains the design principles of the device and the procedure used for optimization of design parameters for the best performance. Last section of the paper gives simulation results to compare the performance of the device to current state of the art methods used for bughole rating in industry.