TY - JOUR A1 - Wai-Lok Lai, W. A1 - Kind, Thomas A1 - Fung-Chu Sham, J. A1 - Wiggenhauser, Herbert T1 - Correction of GPR wave velocity at different oblique angles between traverses and alignment of line objects in a common offset antenna setting N2 - Estimation of ground penetrating radar's wave velocity in materials is a critical step to accurately estimate depth of embedded line objects in concrete structures, and wetness of material. Errors of velocity are defined as the deviations between the velocities obtained in various oblique angles and those obtained in the traverse normal to the object orientation in a common offset antenna setting. In this paper, we quantified and corrected the errors of such estimation. GPR traverses were designed to travel in various oblique angles θ (90°, 75°, 60° and 45°) relative to the steel bars at 5 cover depths (55 mm, 85 mm, 115 mm, 145 mm and 175 mm). GPR wave velocity at any position within the lateral detection range of steel bars was measured with simple trigonometry in a semi-automated in-house program. It was found that reduction of oblique angles (i.e. θ<90°) causes flatter hyperbolic reflections and the associated errors of velocity can be as much as 30% in the case of an oblique angle 45° before correction. Such errors were corrected after re-scaling the horizontal travel distance with a multiplication factor of sin θ. KW - Ground penetrating radar KW - Oblique angles KW - Hyperbola KW - Velocity error PY - 2016 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096386951630007X DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ndteint.2016.03.003 VL - 82 SP - 36 EP - 43 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-37146 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Helmerich, Rosemarie A1 - Milmann, Boris A1 - Wöstmann, Jens A1 - Röllig, Mathias A1 - Kind, Thomas A1 - Lai, W. T1 - Qualitätssicherung für textilfaserverstärkten Beton N2 - Beim Bauen im Bestand ist die zusätzlich aufzunehmende Last in der Regel zu beschränken. Das trifft insbesondere für schon gerissene Elemente wie Gewölbe odör alternde Betonkonstruktionen zu. Da Hochleistungsfasern wie Textilgelege aus Carbonfasern oder alkaliresistenten (AR-)Glasfasern keinen Korrosionsschutz erfordern, kann die Verbundschicht aus Feinkornbeton dünn gehalten werden, um das Bauwerk nur mit einer Mindestzusatzlast zu beanspruchen. Textilbeton heißt die neue Bauweise, für die es zurzeit noch kein festgeschriebenes Qualitätssicherungs- und Wartungskonzept für Bau und die spätere Nutzung gibt. T2 - 5. Anwendertagung Textilbeton CY - Friedrichshafen, Germany DA - 24.09.2013 KW - Textilfaserverstärkter Beton KW - Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung KW - Ultraschall-Echo KW - Radar-Echo PY - 2013 VL - 9 SP - 22 AN - OPUS4-29512 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hong, Shuxian A1 - Lai, W.-L. A1 - Helmerich, Rosemarie T1 - Experimental monitoring of chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion and chloride contamination in concrete with ground-penetrating radar N2 - In this article, we present a laboratory experiment to monitor the accelerated corrosion in concrete using ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Four concrete test specimens were cast with rebars of different size and placed at different depths. The lifetime decades of reinforcement corrosion process were accelerated into 18 days by using the impress current technique. The electrochemical corrosion process was periodically monitored with GPR. Two control specimens were also prepared to investigate the influence of chloride contamination on GPR signal. The measured data were analysed both in time and frequency domains. In time domain, the peak-to-peak amplitude of a wave reflected by a rebar was calculated to investigate the relationship between an increase in signal amplitude and the degree of corrosion. In frequency domain, the time–frequency representations of the signal were computed by using S-transform. The results show that reinforce corrosion increased the amplitude of reflected signal in time domain but did not change the peak frequency in frequency domain while chloride contamination attenuates the signal to smaller amplitude and lower peak frequency. Based on the results, a novel process is finally proposed for GPR-based corrosion detection. KW - Non-destructive KW - Reinforcement corrosion KW - GPR KW - Chloride KW - Moisture KW - S-transform PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2013.879321 SN - 1573-2479 VL - 11 IS - 1 SP - 15 EP - 26 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - London [u.a.] AN - OPUS4-33085 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Radlinska, A. A1 - Nmai, C. A1 - Buregyeya, A. A1 - Lai, W.L. A1 - Kou, S. ED - Uzoegbo, H.C. ED - Schmidt, Wolfram T1 - Why does Africa need African concrete? An observation of concrete in Europe, America, and Asia - and conclusions for Africa N2 - Portland cement, as we know it today, has its origin in Great Britain approximately 170 years ago. Since then, concrete technology has spread out to Europe, the United States, and Japan, where it became a key component for rapid industrial development. Europe, the Unites States and many Asian countries today have developed a high level of technology regarding concrete construction. However, each of them has a unique history and as a result, different “concrete philosophy” depending upon the social, environmental and financial boundary conditions, as well as their evolution throughout the years and local construction traditions. As a result, the word concrete may refer to rather different materials in America, Europe, and Asia. Apart from South Africa, most sub-Saharan African countries cannot look back on a similarly long cement and concrete history. Cement and concrete are rather new materials and not yet well established. This gives African engineers the unique opportunity to learn from past mistakes and to develop a concrete technology, which refers to the best available practice. However, in many sub-Saharan African countries, standards and regulations are adopted (preferably from Europe or the US) without consideration of the historical background of these standards. Although this practice helps saving resources for the implementation, it does not necessarily yield the best result in the African environment, and also from an economic point of view it might come back disadvantageously due to unnecessary overdesigning. By comparing the differing states-of-the-art in North America, Europe, and Asia, this paper emphasizes, how regional conditions determine the practice of concrete technology in the sub-Saharan area. It is therefore important for Africa to develop a unique African concrete technology, which is perfectly fitted to the specific local conditions, even if it may vary distinctively from the established practice elsewhere. The paper concludes that African nations should effort into adapting existing principles that have proved to function well rather than adopting existing standards. T2 - ACCTA - International conference on advances in cement and concrete technology in Africa 2013 CY - Johannesburg, South Africa DA - 28.01.2013 KW - Cement KW - Casting environment KW - Concrete KW - Durability KW - Standards PY - 2013 SN - 978-3-9815360-3-4 SP - 1139 EP - 1147 AN - OPUS4-27767 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -