TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Villalobos, S. A1 - Scott, D. T1 - Validation of artificial defects for Non-destructive testing measurements on a reference structure N2 - Non-destructive testing was established over the last decades as an important tool for assessing damages, material characterization and quality assurance in civil engineering. For example, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can be used to scan large areas of concrete structures to determine the spatial position of the reinforcement. With the ultrasonic echo method, the thickness of concrete structures can be easily determined even if a high density of reinforcement is given. Various methods and processes have been developed for the validation of NDT procedures aiming at ensuring the quality of measurements in practical use. The Probability of Detection (POD) for example, is an available method to compare different technical devices with each other quantitatively regarding their performance. With this method, the best suited testing device for a specific inspection task under defined boundary conditions can be selected. By using the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM), it is possible to quantify the measurement uncertainty of an inspection procedure for a specific task. Another important aspect to improve the acceptance of non-destructive testing methods is the development of reference specimens. Reference specimens serve for the calibration and further development of NDT methods under realistic conditions in different laboratories under the same conditions. This is an essential prerequisite for round robin tests. A particular challenge here is the most realistic representation of a damage that can occur at building sites. Possible damages include for example horizontal and vertical cracks or honeycombs in concrete. Such a reference structure was built for the development of a new design of power plant constructions. Comparative studies on the manufacturing of realistic honeycombs and delaminations were carried out in advance on a test specimen. The results of this study are presented here. T2 - ICCRRR 2018 - Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting CY - Cape Town, South Africa DA - 19.11.2018 KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Ultraschall KW - Kiesnest KW - Honeycomb KW - Ultrasonic Echo PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-46974 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Torrent, R. A1 - Ebell, Gino A1 - Völker, Tobias T1 - Testing to reasses - Corrosion activity assessment based on NDT using a prestressed concrete bridge as case study N2 - Corrosion of concrete reinforcement is one of the major damage mechanisms affecting both the load-bearing capacity and the serviceability of reinforced concrete structures significantly. The challenge of detecting corrosion is that the corrosion process in its various forms is not immediately visible, especially in the corrosion initiation phase inside the concrete. When externally discernible damages are observed during visual inspections on the structure, the extent of the damage inside the concrete is often already significant. Corrosion caused by carbonation often leads to severe discoloration of the surface or even large-area spalling of the concrete cover. In contrast, chloride-induced corrosion is usually difficult to observe visually, but can cause much more serious damage in less time. The effect occurs locally and can lead to weakening of the cross-section of the reinforcement. This, in turn, can cause sudden structural collapses without prior notice. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether there is protection against corrosion of the reinforcement in the concrete and to detect active corrosion in the structure at an early stage. In the meanwhile, various non-destructive and minimally invasive testing methods are available to evaluate the resistance to penetration of corrosion-promoting pollutants and to detect active corrosion. In this paper, a bridge crossing the river Regen (Germany) is used as a case-study to demonstrate how the information obtained applying different testing methods can be combined and evaluated in the context of structural reassessments. Both the results of the permeability testing (Torrent tester) and the electrical resistance measurement (Wenner probe) are considered, as well as active corrosion areas are localized using the half-cell potential mapping combined with the concrete cover measurement with the eddy current method and ground penetrating radar (GPR). The results are evaluated using drill cores and in addition laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was applied to obtain information about possible ion transport in the concrete. T2 - EUROSTRUCT 2021 - 1st Conference of the European Association on Quality Control of Bridges and Structures - EUROSTRUCT CY - Padova, Italy DA - 30.08.2021 KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Corrosion KW - Bridge KW - Durability assessment KW - Civil engineering PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-53222 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Epple, Niklas A1 - Liao, Chun-Man T1 - Recent advances in (ultra)sonic active and passive monitoring of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures N2 - In addition to already established structural monitoring methods such as deformation, inclination or strain gauges or acoustic emission sensors, sonic or ultrasonic monitoring might provide valuable information about the condition or alteration of a structure. Sensors such as geophones, recording ambient noise in the sonic and subsonic frequency range can provide information beyond modal analysis by using interferometric methods. Wave velocities determined by this method are related to the elastic properties and stiffness of material and structure and can be converted into damage indicators. Embedded active ultrasonic transducer networks can provide more detailed insight about deterioration or damages again, using interferometric technologies. This approach is extremely sensible, detecting relative change in velocity on down to 10-5. These methods, including benefits and remaining challenges, are demonstrated using data from a test structure at BAM’s test site demonstrating the case of prestress loss, and data from an actual bridge still under traffic. T2 - International Conference on Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting (ICCRRR 2022) CY - Cape Town, South Africa DA - 03.10.2022 KW - Monitoring KW - Ultrasonic KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Coda wave KW - Bridge PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56000 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Küttenbaum, Stefan A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Practical procedure for the precise measurement of geometrical tendon positions in concrete with ultrasonic echo N2 - Existing concrete structures were usually designed for lifetimes of several decades. The current and urgently required efforts to increase sustainability and protect the environment will likely result in extended service lives up to 100 years. To achieve such objectives, it is required to assess structures over their entire lifecycles. Non-destructive testing (NDT) methods can reliably support the assessment of existing structures during the construction, operational, and decommissioning phases. One of the most important and safety-relevant components of a prestressed concrete structure are the tendons. NDT methods such as the ultrasonic echo method are suitable for both the detection and the localization of the tendons, i.e., the measurement of their geometrical position inside the component. The uniqueness of structures, concrete heterogeneity, and varying amounts of secondary components such as the reinforcement represent obstacles in the application of these methods in practice. The aim of this contribution is to demonstrate a practicable procedure, that can be used in the field to determine the parameters required for the measuring data analysis without extensive knowledge about the investigated components. For this purpose, a polyamide reference specimen is used to show which steps are required to obtain reliable imaging information on the position of tendons from the measurement data. The procedure is then demonstrated on a concrete test specimen that covers various relevant and practice-oriented test scenarios, such as varying tendon depths and component thicknesses. T2 - International Conference on Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting (ICCRRR 2022) CY - Cape Town, South Africa DA - 03.10.2022 KW - Validation KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Ultrasonic KW - Reconstruction KW - Concrete KW - Tendon duct PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55999 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Bühling, Benjamin A1 - Maack, Stefan T1 - OsciCheck - A novel fluidic transducer for air coupled ultrasonic measurements N2 - Ultrasonic measurement technology has become indispensable in NDT-CE. Air-coupled ultrasonic (ACU) measurement techniques promise to reduce measurement time. However, the signal quality suffers from large specific impedance mismatch at the transducer-air and air-specimen interface. Additionally, large pressure amplitudes are necessary for the penetration depth required in NDT-CE applications. To address the specific requirements of ultrasonic testing in NDT-CE, a robust ACU transducer was developed, that generates ultrasound by quickly switching a pressurized air flow. The simple design of the fluidic transducer makes the device maintenance free and resilient against harsh environmental conditions. Since the signal is generated by aeroacoustics, there is no specific impedance mismatch between the transducer and the surrounding air. The ultrasonic signal exhibits frequencies in the 30-60 kHz range and is therefore well suited to penetrate heterogenous materials such as concrete. This contribution gives an introduction in the working principle and signal characteristics of the fluidic transducer. A detailed outlook is given to discuss the future potential of fluidic ultrasonic actuators. T2 - International Symposium Non-Destructive Testing in Civil Engineering CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 16.08.2022 KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Fluidics KW - Bistable amplifier KW - Aeroacoustics PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55529 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Imaging of Ultrasonic Echo Measurements for Reconstruction of Technical Data of Bridges – Possibilities, Limitations and Outlook N2 - When reassessing existing concrete bridges, the challenge is often to obtain missing or incomplete information on the internal structure. In particular, the number and position of the existing reinforcement as well as the geometric dimensions of the components are of interest. Non-destructive testing methods, like radar or ultrasound, which work on the basis of the pulse-echo method, have been established for this purpose, as they only require access to the component from one side. The measurement data recorded on the structure require pre-processing to be able to reproduce the internal structure geometrically accurately. Besides different steps of data processing, the geometrical reconstruction of the measured data based on the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) is state of the art today. In this paper, the technical possibilities of the ultrasonic echo method are presented based on measurements in the laboratory and on a real bridge structure. The precision of the reconstruction and its limitations are shown. In addition to the state of the art SAFT technique, open questions and the latest research approaches, such as imaging by reverse time migration (RTM) including initial results are discussed. T2 - 13th German-Japanese Bridge Symposium CY - Osaka, Japan DA - 29.08.2023 KW - Bridge KW - Non destructive testing and evaluation KW - Concrete KW - Validation PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58328 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Thunell, B. A1 - Wiggenhauser, Herbert T1 - Demonstration of State of the Art NDT-Methods for Nuclear Concrete Reactor Containments N2 - The special design of buildings, constructed for nuclear power plants is a particular challenge for the nondestructive testing in the building industry. In particular the major component thicknesses, the degree of reinforcement and surface coating systems make the application of NDT methods difficult. The studies first steps were undertaken to determine to which extent established applications of these techniques are useable in the field of infrastructure buildings. Methods have been evaluated that are already state of the art. So for example the ground penetrating radar was used for locating metallic mounting parts. Furthermore, the low-lying internal structure of the containment was investigated with the ultrasonic method. T2 - International Symposium Non-Destructive Testing in Civil Engineering 2015 CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 15.09.2015 KW - ground penetrating radar KW - ultrasonic KW - nuclear structures KW - NDT PY - 2015 AN - OPUS4-38839 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan A1 - Knackmuß, J. A1 - Creutzburg, R. T1 - Comparative visualization of the geometry of a hollow box girder using 3D-Lidar Part 2: Reconstruction of 3D Geometric Modell N2 - With the mandatory introduction of the May 2011 directive for reassessment of bridges in Germany, the administrations of the federal and state governments have the duty to prove the stability of their bridge stock. Verification of bridge stability will be realized with consideration of the newly increased traffic loads. Particularly in older bridges, the verification can only be achieved if calculative surplus load capacity of the original structural design is taken into account in the recalculation. One option for considering these reserves is the exact determination of the dead weight of the bridge. Within this case study, it will be demonstrated how the problem can be practically solved. In order to determine the dead weight of a concrete bridge, its volume has to be calculated. as a first step, a 3D laser scanner is used to record the internal geometry of a hollow box bridge girder. For the determination of the thickness of the concrete member, the non-destructive technique ultrasonic echo is applied. The construction must be segmented in approximately equidistant parts in order to be able to carry out an economic and efficient investigation. The description of the segmentation of the point cloud, carried out in a 2D model, was presented in the first part of the publication. The subject of this presentation is the merging of 2D cross sections into a 3D model, from which the weight of the bridge can be calculated. T2 - IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging 2017 CY - San Francisco, CA, USA DA - 29.01.2017 KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung im Bauwesen KW - LiDAR KW - NDT PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-39156 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maack, Stefan T1 - Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung (BAM) - Round table presentation N2 - Vorstellung der Tätigkeit der BAM und des FB 8.2 im Rahmen einer geplanten Greminentätigkeit im fib - Action Group 9. T2 - 2nd meeting fib Action Group 9 'Testing and SHM’ CY - München, Germany DA - 14.06.2018 KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung KW - Bauwesen PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-45215 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -