Design of connector for measurements in high frequency on anchor rods

Abstract

Companies of power transmission lines and telecommunications need to know the condition of their structures. However, there are ones which are buried or encased in concrete below-ground. Nondestructive techniques are essentials to investigate the condition of the rods used to anchor guy cables in guyed towers. A connector and a matching circuit have been designed to allow a network analyzer to apply and receive high frequency signals on these rods and, furthermore, to be able to identify corrosion or holes on an anchor rod using a promising nondestructive technique. High frequency analysis have been done on the results provided by simulations and experimental tests through the reflected signals that come in the input port of the connector and matching circuit. The high frequency connector, named CHAAF, was fabricated and tested.