TY - JOUR A1 - Klewe, Tim A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Ritzer, Tobias A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine T1 - Classification of Practical Floor Moisture Damage Using GPR - Limits and Opportunities N2 - Machine learning in non-destructive testing (NDT) offers significant potential for efficient daily data analysis and uncovering previously unknown relationships in persistent problems. However, its successful application heavily depends on the availability of a diverse and well-labeled training dataset, which is often lacking, raising questions about the transferability of trained algorithms to new datasets. To examine this issue closely, the authors applied classifiers trained with laboratory Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data to categorize on-site moisture damage in layered building floors. The investigations were conducted at five different locations in Germany. For reference, cores were taken at each measurement point and labeled as (i) dry, (ii) with insulation damage, or (iii) with screed damage. Compared to the accuracies of 84 % to 90 % within the laboratory training data (504 B-Scans), the classifiers achieved a lower overall accuracy of 53 % for on-site data (72 B-Scans). This discrepancy is mainly attributable to a significantly higher dynamic of all signal features extracted from on-site measurements compared to laboratory training data. Nevertheless, this study highlights the promising sensitivity of GPR for identifying individual damage cases. In particular the results showing insulation damage, which cannot be detected by any other non-destructive method, revealed characteristic patterns. The accurate interpretation of such results still depends on trained personnel, whereby fully automated approaches would require a larger and diverse on-site data set. Until then, the findings of this work contribute to a more reliable analysis of moisture damage in building floors using GPR and offer practical insights into applying machine learning to non-destructive testing for civil engineering (NDT-CE). KW - GPR KW - Material moisture KW - Building floor KW - Machine Learning PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-607932 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-024-01111-7 SN - 0195-9298 VL - 43 IS - 3 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC AN - OPUS4-60793 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 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 - Klewe, Tim A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine T1 - Review of moisture measurements in civil engineering with ground penetrating radar – Applied methods and signal features N2 - When applying Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to assess the moisture content of building materials, different medium properties, dimensions, interfaces and other unknown influences may require specific strategies to achieve useful results. Hence, we present an overview of the various approaches to carry out moisture measurements with GPR in civil engineering (CE). We especially focus on the applied Signal features such as time, amplitude and frequency features and discuss their limitations. Since the majority of publications rely on one single feature when applying moisture measurements, we also hope to encourage the consideration of approaches that combine different signal features for further developments. KW - Ground Penetrating Radar KW - Moisture KW - Civil engineering KW - Signal features PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-520684 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.122250 VL - 278 SP - 122250 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-52068 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -