When news came of the collapse of the Champlain Towers residential high-rise in Surfside, Fla., (see p. 8-11) Pouria Ghods thought back to another fatal collapse, almost exactly nine years earlier at the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, Ontario. In that case, Ghods’ company, Ottawa-based Giatec Scientific, had provided non-destructive testing equipment during the investigation that helped determine corrosion was to blame for a collapse of the roof and parking deck, killing two people.
“We used our technology, iCor, to detect there and find the right cause,” recalls Ghods, whose company had been contracted by structural engineer NORR to help with the mall collapse investigation. The iCor system is able to detect electromagnetically the corrosion rates, corrosion potential and in-situ electrical resistivity in reinforced concrete. iCor’s non-destructive testing doesn’t require drilling to expose the rebar, a major time saver on site.