System and method of testing the tension of anchors in a dam

A method of determining a tension of an anchor embedded in a dam, comprising:

• applying a force pulse to the dam;
• measuring a dynamic impulse response of the dam in response to the force pulse, wherein a portion of the empirical dynamic impulse response is dominated by a dynamic behavior of the anchor;
• determining a set of observed resonant frequencies from the portion of the empirical dynamic impulse response dominated by the dynamic behavior of the anchor;
• obtaining sets of modeled resonant frequencies for the anchor, wherein the set of modeled resonant frequencies map to a set of tension values for the anchor;
• determining a closest matching set of modeled resonant frequencies from the sets of modeled resonant frequencies, wherein the set of the closest matching set of modeled resonant frequencies is a closest match to the set of observed resonant frequencies;
• and
• selecting a first tension value from the set of tension values for the anchor, wherein the first tension value maps to the closest matching set of modeled resonant frequencies that is the closest match to the set of observed resonant frequencies.

A method of determining a tension of an anchor embedded in a dam, comprising:

• applying a force pulse to the dam;
• measuring a dynamic impulse response of the dam in response to the force pulse;
• determining a set of observed resonant frequencies from the empirical dynamic impulse response that are located at frequencies greater between 250 Hertz and 2500 Hertz;
• obtaining sets of modeled resonant frequencies for the anchor, wherein the set of modeled resonant frequencies map to a set of tension values for the anchor;
• determining a closest matching set of modeled resonant frequencies from the sets of modeled resonant frequencies, wherein the set of the closest matching set of modeled resonant frequencies is a closest match to the set of observed resonant frequencies;
• and
• selecting a first tension value from the set of tension values for the anchor, wherein the first tension value maps to the closest matching set of modeled resonant frequencies that is the closest match to the set of observed resonant frequencies.