Liquid Penetrating Dye for Concrete Crack

[jreit]

Does anyone here have experience with using liquid penetrating dye for concrete crack detection?
We want to have an idea of the width and depth of the cracks. Right now, all we have are visual reports.
I was unable to find any type of manufacturer/product that would fit the bill. Most seem to be geared towards weld cracks.

 

[sponton]

You can look at XYPEX, their main product is an admixture though, but according to the sales rep they did have some stuff to seal existent structures.

 

[sponton]

sorry didn't notice you wanted a dye to find cracks, i don't really know if they do that but might as well apply a sealer as a precaution than break your head trying to find cracks.

 

[mike20793]

Check out Magnaflux Spotcheck. They claim their liquid penetrant testing kit is good for 'revealing cracks and other surface discontinuities in virtually any porous material.'

 

[gtaw]

Penetrant testing is usually used to detect open discontinuities in non porous materials. There is a penetrant for porous materials, sometimes referred to as filtered fiber penetrant. I do not believe either is appropriate for concrete testing.

The penetrant used for non porous materials is oily based. It will permanently stain the concrete and being oil based, it will do the concrete no good.

Best regards - Al

 

[jreit]

Thank you for the information. This was an option that was being explored, though typically we use ultrasonic or radar.

 

[Ron]

Detrimental concrete cracks are visible...you don't need dye penetrant. Further, dye penetrants will not work well because they will "soak" into the concrete. The reason they work for weld defects is that only the crack absorbs the dye....the surrounding metal will not absorb the dye.

Most concrete cracks are not significantly detrimental to the performance of concrete, depending on the criticality of the application.

 

[darthsoilsguy2]

water?

on a different note, dye penetrant isn't for width or depth of cracks... it can be for length of the indication. it can do a little bit of depth when doing seal testing where you look for indications on the other side. and like others said... not for concrete

There are plenty of concrete crack monitoring devices on the market, if you are worried that the crack is growing from geotechnical or structural loads.

 

[Michel60]

If all you need is a better visual of the crack pattern consider just using water. As the surface dries the cracks will become visually more pronounced until they dry too.