Non-destructive assessment of retaining wall of former coal mine plant / Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung der Stützmauer einer ehemaligen Kohlegrube

A large retaining wall (appr. 9 m high and 286 m long) of a former coal mine has been investigated using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), with two low frequency antennas (200 and 400 MHz), and Large Aperture UltraSound (LAUS) to gather information about the condition and inner structure of the wall. Three vertical lines were selected in representative areas of the wall to evaluate the usefulness of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) with these two methods. The LAUS results showed the layer structure at one line where the wall was enforced by a concrete shell and were unspecific regarding the inner structure beyond the first layer. GPR results were able to be collected much faster and showed some internal features. Penetration was limited to 2-3 m due to the high absorption in the material.