Non-Destructive Determination of Chloride and Water Content in Concrete Using Ground Penetrating Radar

Corrosion of rebar within reinforced concrete is a major problem for countries where salt is applied to roads for deicing. Concrete structures are periodically inspected in order to monitor possible damage caused by chloride-induced corrosion of the reinforce- ment. However, the available drilling and visual inspections do not supply sufficient spatial information or can only be assessed in advanced stages of corrosion, respectively. Conse- quently, the condition of bridge decks can only be assessed with low certainty. Therefore, a spatially continuous and non-destructive method detecting chloride in concrete structures is desirable. This Ph.D. thesis deals with the non-destructive monitoring of chloride ion con- centration inside the concrete of bridge decks, in the case of seasonal exposition to chlo- rides. Novel Ground Penetrating Radar data processing methodologies and their prerequi- sites are presented. An experiment recreating chloride contamination processes in concrete was designed. From it, a Ground Penetrating Radar dataset was acquired. The dataset was processed with these novel methodologies. The results analysis enabled the constitution of empiric relationships linking concrete condition and Ground Penetrating Radar datasets

High-resolution 3D condition survey of a masonry arch bridge using Ground Penetrating Radar

Condition surveying is essential before rehabilitation and modification of a structure. It implies information collection and analysis for structural performance evaluation. Common condition surveying often requires obstructive and invasive techniques that can affect the structure’s integrity. Also, the extent of internal disorders and their distribution in the structure is not obtained. The use of non-destructive techniques combined with external analysis, can provide useful information for structural condition surveying. This paper presents the application of Ground Penetrating Radar for the condition survey of a massive natural stone masonry bridge with twin large span arches. Emphasis is placed on the determination of the condition of the arches. The paper describes the processing steps leading to a high-resolution 3D reconstitution of spatial and structural information for disorder mapping. Benefits and limits of this novel representation method for massive bridge structures will be reviewed

Report from Working Group 3: Beyond the standard model physics at the HL-LHC and HE-LHC

This is the third out of five chapters of the final report [1] of the Workshop on Physics at HL-LHC, and perspectives on HE-LHC [2]. It is devoted to the study of the potential, in the search for Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics, of the High Luminosity (HL) phase of the LHC, defined as $3$ ab$^{-1}$ of data taken at a centre-of-mass energy of 14 TeV, and of a possible future upgrade, the High Energy (HE) LHC, defined as $15$ ab$^{-1}$ of data at a centre-of-mass energy of 27 TeV. We consider a large variety of new physics models, both in a simplified model fashion and in a more model-dependent one. A long list of contributions from the theory and experimental (ATLAS, CMS, LHCb) communities have been collected and merged together to give a complete, wide, and consistent view of future prospects for BSM physics at the considered colliders. On top of the usual standard candles, such as supersymmetric simplified models and resonances, considered for the evaluation of future collider potentials, this report contains results on dark matter and dark sectors, long lived particles, leptoquarks, sterile neutrinos, axion-like particles, heavy scalars, vector-like quarks, and more. Particular attention is placed, especially in the study of the HL-LHC prospects, to the detector upgrades, the assessment of the future systematic uncertainties, and new experimental techniques. The general conclusion is that the HL-LHC, on top of allowing to extend the present LHC mass and coupling reach by $20-50\%$ on most new physics scenarios, will also be able to constrain, and potentially discover, new physics that is presently unconstrained. Moreover, compared to the HL-LHC, the reach in most observables will, generally more than double at the HE-LHC, which may represent a good candidate future facility for a final test of TeV-scale new physics

Search for pair-produced resonances decaying to jet pairs in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 TeV

Results are reported of a general search for pair production of heavy resonances decaying to pairs of hadronic jets in events with at least four jets. The study is based on up to 19.4 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC. Limits are determined on the production of scalar top quarks (top squarks) in the framework of R-parity violating supersymmetry and on the production of color-octet vector bosons (colorons). First limits at the LHC are placed on top squark production for two scenarios. The first assumes decay to a bottom quark and a light-flavor quark and is excluded for masses between 200 and 385 GeV, and the second assumes decay to a pair of light-flavor quarks and is excluded for masses between 200 and 350 GeV at 95% confidence level. Previous limits on colorons decaying to light-flavor quarks are extended to exclude masses from 200 to 835 GeV

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio