TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Fluidic Ultrasound Generation for Non‐Destructive Testing JF - Advanced Materials N2 - AbstractAir‐coupled ultrasonic testing (ACU) is a pioneering technique in non‐destructive testing (NDT). While contact testing and fluid immersion testing are standard methods in many applications, the adoption of ACU is progressing slowly, especially in the low ultrasonic frequency range. A main reason for this development is the difficulty of generating high amplitude ultrasonic bursts with equipment that is robust enough to be applied outside a laboratory environment. This paper presents the fluidic ultrasonic transducer as a solution to this challenge. This novel aeroacoustic source uses the flow instability of a sonic jet in a bistable fluidic switch to generate ultrasonic bursts up to 60 kHz with a mean peak pressure of 320 Pa. The robust design allows operation in adverse environments, independent of the operating fluid. Non‐contact through‐transmission experiments are conducted on four materials and compared with the results of conventional transducers. For the first time, it is shown that the novel fluidic ultrasonic transducer provides a suitable acoustic signal for NDT tasks and has potential of furthering the implementation of ACU in industrial applications.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved KW - Aeroacoustics KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Fluidics KW - Harsh environment KW - Laser Doppler vibrometer KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-594273 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202311724 SN - 0935-9648 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Wiley AN - OPUS4-59427 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Hauke, M. A1 - Schweitzer, T. A1 - Maack, Stefan T1 - Frequency modulated, air-coupled ultrasound generated by fluidic oscillators T2 - Proceedings of the IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium N2 - The majority of ultrasonic devices used for non-destructive testing in civil engineering require contact with the surface of the concrete (specimen), which significantly increases the time required for the measurement. This makes it impractical for extensive investigation of large-scale structures such as bridge decks, foundations, or tunnels. In a pioneering approach, fluidic oscillators are used as contact free ultrasonic sources to overcome the aforementioned limitations. These robust and cost-effective actuators require only pressurised air and are ideally suited for harsh environments. At a constant supply pressure, they generate a continuous mono-frequent actuation signal. Further, varying the supply pressure via a fast pressure regulator was found to generate a frequency modulated signal which enabled time-of-flight measurement with an added advantage of increased signal to noise ratio. To demonstrate the feasibility of this novel idea of non-contact ultrasound, the results of the initial tests are presented. T2 - IEEE International Ultrasound Symposium CY - Venice, Italy DA - 11.10.2022 KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Frequency modulation KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Civil engineering KW - Building materials KW - Fluidic oscillators PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1109/IUS54386.2022.9958740 SP - 1 EP - 4 AN - OPUS4-56073 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Development of an Accurate and Robust Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight Measurement Technique JF - Sensors N2 - Ultrasonic time-of-flight (ToF) measurements enable the non-destructive characterization of material parameters as well as the reconstruction of scatterers inside a specimen. The time-consuming and potentially damaging procedure of applying a liquid couplant between specimen and transducer can be avoided by using air-coupled ultrasound. However, to obtain accurate ToF results, the waveform and travel time of the acoustic signal through the air, which are influenced by the ambient conditions, need to be considered. The placement of microphones as signal receivers is restricted to locations where they do not affect the sound field. This study presents a novel method for in-air ranging and ToF determination that is non-invasive and robust to changing ambient conditions or waveform variations. The in-air travel time was determined by utilizing the azimuthal directivity of a laser Doppler vibrometer operated in refracto-vibrometry (RV) mode. The time of entry of the acoustic signal was determined using the autocorrelation of the RV signal. The same signal was further used as a reference for determining the ToF through the specimen in transmission mode via cross-correlation. The derived signal processing procedure was verified in experiments on a polyamide specimen. Here, a ranging accuracy of <0.1 mm and a transmission ToF accuracy of 0.3μs were achieved. Thus, the proposed method enables fast and accurate non-invasive ToF measurements that do not require knowledge about transducer characteristics or ambient conditions. KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Laser Doppler vibrometer KW - Refracto-vibrometry KW - Acousto-optic effect KW - Time-of-flight measurements KW - In-air ranging KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-544711 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22062135 VL - 22 IS - 6 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Switzerland AN - OPUS4-54471 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Using sonic crystals to separate the acoustic from the flow field of a fluidic transducer JF - Applied acoustics N2 - Ultrasonic testing is a widely applied measurement method in materials research and medicine. Commonly, a transducer is coupled to the specimen directly or via a liquid coupling agent. While reducing acoustic transmission losses significantly, this procedure is time-consuming and cannot be used for sensitive specimens. Air-coupled ultrasound is a viable alternative in such cases, although suffering from very high acoustic transmission losses between transducer, air and specimen. The recently introduced fluidic transducer (FT) generates ultrasound by utilizing the instability of a supersonic air jet switched inside a fluidic amplifier. Since only air is used as the working medium and no vibrating surfaces are used for ultrasound generation, the transducer is able to efficiently generate large acoustic pressure amplitudes. The resulting acoustic field shares its directivity with the ejected high-velocity air jet. Thus, the acoustic energy needs to be redirected from the jet axis in order to make the fluidic transducer applicable to sensitive specimens. In this study, the effectivity of using sonic crystals (SCs) for this redirection is investigated using acoustic and flow measurements. SCs are air-permeable while being reflective to large acoustic frequency bands. It was shown that both a defect waveguide and a mirroring strategy successfully redirected the acoustic field from the air jet. Furthermore, the interaction of flow and SC showed strong acoustic quenching if the SC was placed too close to the FT outlet. Blockage of the jet entrainment due to the SC may result in slightly higher off-axis flow velocities locally, which should be considered in sensitive applications. KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Sonic crystal KW - Fluidics KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Metamaterial KW - Bandgap quenching PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2021.108608 SN - 0003-682X VL - 189 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-54205 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klewe, Tim A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Ritzer, Tobias A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine T1 - Combining Signal Features of Ground-Penetrating Radar to Classify Moisture Damage in Layered Building Floors JF - Applied Sciences N2 - To date, the destructive extraction and analysis of drilling cores is the main possibility to obtain depth information about damaging water ingress in building floors. The time- and costintensive procedure constitutes an additional burden for building insurances that already list piped water damage as their largest item. With its high sensitivity for water, a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) could provide important support to approach this problem in a non-destructive way. In this research, we study the influence of moisture damage on GPR signals at different floor constructions. For this purpose, a modular specimen with interchangeable layers is developed to vary the screed and insulation material, as well as the respective layer thickness. The obtained data set is then used to investigate suitable signal features to classify three scenarios: dry, damaged insulation, and damaged screed. It was found that analyzing statistical distributions of A-scan features inside one B-scan allows for accurate classification on unknown floor constructions. Combining the features with multivariate data analysis and machine learning was the key to achieve satisfying results. The developed method provides a basis for upcoming validations on real damage cases. KW - Radar KW - Material Moisture KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Signal Features KW - Civil Engineering KW - Machine Learning PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-533606 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/app11198820 VL - 11 IS - 19 SP - 8820 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-53360 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Schönsee, Eric A1 - Schweitzer, Thorge A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph T1 - Acoustic and flow data of fluidic and piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers JF - Data in brief N2 - This data article presents characteristic acoustic and flow data of a fluidic ultrasonic transducer as well as acoustic data of a commercial piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer used in non-destructive testing for civil engineering. The flow data has been acquired using hot-wire anemometry and a Pitot tube. The three-dimensional acoustic data of both devices has been acquired using a calibrated microphone. The distribution of characteristic acoustic properties of both transducers are extracted and given in addition to the raw data. The data presented in the article will be a valuable source for reference and validation, both for developing fluidic and alternate ultrasound generation technologies. Furthermore, they will give additional insight into the acoustic-flow interaction phenomena of high speed switching devices. This article is accompanying the paper Experimental Analysis of the Acoustic Field of an Ultrasonic Pulse Induced by a Fluidic Switch (Bühling et al., 2021) published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, where the data is interpreted in detail and the rationale for characteristic sound properties of the fluidic transducer are given. KW - Ultrasound KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Fluidics KW - Acoustic-flow interaction KW - Piezoelectric transducer PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-531308 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2021.107280 VL - 38 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-53130 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Schweitzer, T. T1 - Experimental analysis of the acoustic field of an ultrasonic pulse induced by a fluidic switch JF - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America N2 - Ultrasonic inspection is a common tool for non-destructive testing in civil engineering (NDT-CE). Currently, transducers are coupled directly to the specimen surface, which makes the inspection time-consuming. Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) transducers are more time-efficient but need a high pressure amplitude as the impedance mismatch between the air and the concrete is high and large penetration depth is needed for the inspection. Current approaches aim at eliminating the impedance mismatch between the transducer and the air to gain amplitude; however, they hardly fulfill the NDT-CE requirements. In this study, an alternative approach for ultrasound generation is presented: the signal is generated by a fluidic switch that rapidly injects a mass flow into the ambience. The acoustic field, the flow field, and their interaction are investigated. It is shown that the signal has dominant frequencies in the range of 35–60 kHz, and the amplitude is comparable to that of a commercial ACU transducer. KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Ultrasonic transducer KW - Acoustic-flow interaction PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-523862 DO - https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0003937 VL - 149 IS - 4 SP - 2150 EP - 2158 AN - OPUS4-52386 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine A1 - Munsch, Sarah Mandy A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Wöstmann, Jens A1 - Borchardt, Kerstin T1 - Eignung zerstörungsfreier Messtechnik für die Bestimmung der Belegreife von Estrichen JF - Bautechnik N2 - Die Bestimmung der Belegreife von Estrichen erfolgt im Bauwesen meist unter Verwendung von zerstörenden Verfahren, die Probenentnahmen erfordern und nur punktuelle Daten liefern. Bei anhydritgebundenen Estrichen gelten 0,5 M% und bei zementgebundenen ca. 3,5 M% und höher als belegreifer Feuchtegehalt. Die Belegreife wird als Feuchtegehalt in Masseprozent (M%) bezogen auf die Trockenmasse des Baustoffes angegeben. Zur zerstörungsfreien Feuchtemessung existieren verschiedene einfach zu bedienende Handgeräte, die u. a. auf elektrischen, elektromagnetischen und kapazitiven Methoden beruhen. In dieser Arbeit wurden ein kapazitives (Kugelsonde), ein elektromagnetisches (Mikrowellensensoren) und ein elektrisches Messverfahren (Vierelektroden-Sonde) untersucht. Mit Ausnahme der Vierelektroden-Sonde weisen die Handgeräte keine ausreichende Sensitivität in Bereichen niedriger Feuchtegehalte unterhalb von 1 M% auf und scheinen somit nicht für anhydritgebundene Estriche geeignet zu sein. Für zementgebundene Estriche lassen sich hingegen mit allen getesteten Geräten Änderungen in dem Bereich der Belegreife erfassen. In dieser Arbeit wird zusätzlich die Wasserabgabe in g/m²/Tag als Bezugsgröße herangezogen. Die Wasserabgabe stellt ein geeigneteres Maß für die Schadensträchtigkeit dar und ermöglicht direkte Vergleiche unabhängig von der verwendeten Estrichart. Für alle getesteten Estriche konnte eine Wasserabgabe von ca. 8-10 g/m²/Tag als Belegreifegrenzwert bestimmt werden. N2 - The determination of the readiness for covering of screeds in the construction industry is usually carried out by using destructive methods, which require sampling and only provide punctual data. As non-destructive testing methods, various hand tools exist, which are based on electrical and capacitive methods and are easy to handle. In this study, a capacitive spherical probe, a 4-Electrode probe in Wenner configuration and microwave probes were tested. With the exception of the 4-Electrode probe, the hand instruments do not have sufficient sensitivity in ranges of low humidity below 1 M%, and therefore do not appear to be suitable for anhydrite-bound screeds with a readiness of covering at 0.5 M%. On the other hand, for cement-bound screeds, it is possible to record changes in the range of the readiness of covering. The readiness of covering is usually stated and determined in reference to the relative moisture content. For the purpose of really assessing the risk of damage, we suggest to rather use the “water loss” in g/m²/day. Our results show in direct comparisons that value of approximately 8-10 g/m²/day is a reliable indicator for the readiness for covering of all tested screed types. KW - Estrich KW - Feuchte KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung KW - Calcium-Carbid-Methode KW - Mikrowellensensoren KW - Vierelektroden-Sonde KW - Kapazitive Kugelsonde KW - Screed KW - Moisture KW - Readiness for covering KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Calcium carbide method KW - Microwave KW - 4-electrode probe KW - Capacitive spherical probe PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/bate.201700051 SN - 1437-0999 N1 - Geburtsname von Munsch, Sarah Mandy: Nagel, S. M. - Birth name of Munsch, Sarah Mandy: Nagel, S. M. VL - 95 IS - 4 SP - 265 EP - 274 PB - Ernst & Sohn AN - OPUS4-43169 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -