Abstract: Both quality and safety of levee cutoff walls are very important for the nation's economics and people's daily activities, therefore, effective and fast testing methods of the integrity of these levee cutoff walls are necessary. The elastic wave imaging method is a nondestructive testing method based on the elastic wave reflection principles and it has the advantages of high efficiency and direct testing results. Based on the elastic wave propagation in the levee theory, this paper presents the numerical analysis results for different types of defects that are commonly encountered in the construction, such as, vertical throughout joints, cutoff wall that does not reach its design depth, and voids in the concrete. The relationships between the response energy and the defects in the levee cutoff wall are established. It is possible to provide a fast defect testing method for the integrity of the levee cutoff walls.

Key words: Levee Cut-off Wall, Elastic Wave Imaging Method, Characteristic of Elastic Wave Propagation, Defects, Evaluation Methods