TY - CONF A1 - Prabhakara, Prathik A1 - Mielentz, Frank A1 - Stolpe, Heiko A1 - Behrens, Matthias A1 - Lay, Vera A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Construction and validation of a novel phased array borehole probe for ultrasonic investigations at sealing structures in radioactive repositories T2 - Proceedings of NDT-CE 2022 N2 - A new type of ultrasonic borehole probe is currently under development for the quality assurance of sealing structures in radioactive waste repositories using existing research boreholes. The goal is to examine the sealing structures made of salt concrete for possible cracks, delamination, and embedded objects. Earlier prototype probes use 12 or 16 individual dry point contact (DPC) horizontal shear wave transducers grouped into a transmitter and a receiver array, each made up of six or eight individual transducers. They are operated with a commercially available portable ultrasonic flaw detector used in the civil engineering industry. To increase the generated sound pressure of the borehole probe, the number of transducers in the novel probe is increased to 32. In addition, timed excitation of each probe is used to direct a focused sound beam to a specific angle and distance based on calculated time delays. Hence, the sensitive test volume is limited, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals is improved. This paper presents the validation of the newly developed phased array borehole probe by beam computation in CIVA software and experimental investigations on a semi-cylindrical test specimen to investigate the directional characteristics. In combination with geophysical reconstruction techniques, an optimised radiation pattern of the probe is expected to improve the signal quality and thus increase the reliability of the imaging results. This is of great importance for the construction of safe sealing structures needed for the disposal of radioactive or toxic waste. PB - NDT.net T2 - NDT-CE 2022 CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Borehole probe KW - Phased array technique KW - SealWasteSafe KW - Monitoring KW - Engineered barrier; PY - 2022 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/56801 AN - OPUS4-56801 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-568016 SN - 1435-4934 SP - 1 EP - 4 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany